Go out with me Evans
by Betty Bent
Summary: A typical but extremely entertaining James and Lily story on how they got together. Starting in their 6th year and ending at their deaths. Please Read!
1. The Dream

_**Disclaimer: I am not J.K.Rowling and all the characters belong to her.**_

_**Go Out With Me Evans**_

_"I'm sorry." _

_"I'm not interested.'_

_"I'm sorry!"_

_"Save your breath. I only came out here because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep out here."_

_"I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you a Mudblood it just –"_

_"Slipped out? It's too late I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little death eater friends – you see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you? I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."_

_"No – listen, I didn't mean –"_

_"- to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?"_

I6 year old Lily Evans, her face shining with sweat, woke up from her dream which she had every now and then since her fight with Severus which was just over half a year ago.

Lily rolled onto her side to see that her best friend, Mary McDonald, and the rest of her room mates had already gone down to breakfast. She pulled on her school robes and headed down to the great hall. Not to her great surprise, Mary was sitting next to Emily, stuffing her face with eggs, bacon and hash browns.

"Hey Mary," Lily said, sitting down and filling her plate with pancakes.

"Hi Lily," said Mary, barely audible through mouthfuls of food.

Lily leant over towards Mary, "Listen, I had that dream again…"

"Oh Lily, just let it go! Snape's in the past. I reckon you should try getting some nicer 'friends' than Severus; a boyfriend even!"

"Yeah, whatever."

Mary wasn't very comforting in times like these. She didn't like Severus.

Across from Mary, sat Peter Pettigrew, who was sitting next to Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and finally, James Potter.

"Wanna go out with me Evans?" called James across the table.

"Potter, if you ask me out one more time I will rip off your limbs one by one and take great pleasure in watching your pain," Lily replied curtly.

Sirius roared with laughter at James' 56th rejection, whilst James smirked and ruffled his hair. "Come on Evans, you know you want me." James looked at her seductively.

"Ew, you make me want to puke. Can't you go annoy someone else for a change?"

"I could, but it's more fun to annoy you."

"Mary, why are we even sitting near these idiots?"

"Because Sirius is really hot," she said casually, "wait, did I say that out loud?"

James and Sirius burst into fits of hysterical laughter, whilst Lily struggled to keep a smile off her face. She refused to let Potter know she could enjoy herself, or he'd never give up.

"Come on Mary, we'll be late for transfiguration."

**A/N: This was a short chapter but it will get longer. Please Review.**


	2. Extremely Bad Day

_"Lily you know that you love me."__ James Potter shouted. _

"_I don't, I hate you!"Lily cried._

_"No, Lily! You are my joy, you are my life and one day you will be my wife!"_

"Nooooooooo!" Lily screamed. She sat up quickly and realised that she had fallen out of bed. Mary looked at her strangely seeing as it was 6 am in the morning. Lily got up and jumped back onto her bed.

"Mary?"

"Yup, Lily," Mary replied.

"I had another bad dream."

"Well, the bad dream part was quite obvious. What was it about?"

"James Potter and I."

"Oh My God, you sooo love him." Mary made kissy faces.

"No I do not love him. The dream was actually about me hating him and he did recite some awful poetry."

"That is so romantic! James and Lily sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

"Shut up!" Lily replied throwing a pillow at Mary and stalking into the bathroom to get ready.

"You know it is a Saturday, you could go back to sleep." Mary stated.

"Can't be bothered." Was the reply.

Three hours later Mary, Lily and Emily walked down to breakfast all dreaming of the wonderful and vast amounts of food that awaited them. As they choose seats down the end of the Gryffindor table they found that they were conveniently very far away from the Marauders. Ten minutes into the meal they owl post arrived. A very scrawny barn owl arrived in front of Lily. It dropped its letter in front of her and flew away to the owlery. Lily opened the letter and read it privately.

_Lily,_

_Mum and Dad are dead. They died in a car crash on Monday. I recieved and sold the house and most of the furniture except for yours which I burned. We each get 2.5 million dollars yours is in a bank account in the family bank. I am marrying Vernon Dursley in 3 weeks. I do not want you to be there nor do i want to speak to you ever again._

_Petunia._

Lily reread the letter at least 4 times. She couldn't comprehend that her parents were in fact dead. She lost her entire family in less than a week. Loud crashes brought her back to the present. Dishes and plates were flying off the table as James Potter walked down the length of the Gryffindor table. Amongst the shock she was sincerly hoping that he wasn't walking towards her. He stopped right in front of her and she cringed as he started to sing. Yes, sing.

_"And I need you now tonight  
And I need you more than ever  
And if you'll only hold me tight  
We'll be holding on forever  
And we'll only be making it right  
Cause we'll never be wrong together  
We can take it to the end of the line  
Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time" ("All of the time!"_ Sirius added his own bit whilst playing air violin_)  
"I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark  
We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks  
I really need you tonight  
Forever's gonna start tonight  
Forever's gonna start tonight"_

It would have been more embarrasing for James if he wasn't so confident and if he didn't have such a good voice. Lily looked around only to see shocked and gobsmacked faces on the students. As she glanced at the staff table she saw Dumbledore tapping his foot and nodding his head with the beat and all the other teachers struggling to keep straight faces.

Proffesser McGonagall stood up and cleared her throat. "Mr Potter that is quite enough, sit down, you too Mr Black."

James turned and looked at Lily before leaving and said loudly "Go out with me Evans?"

Lily looked at him. The stress of James singing to her on top of the fact that her parents were dead was too much for her too handle. "NO! I WILL NOT GO OUT WITH YOU! WHY CAN'T IT GET THROUGH TO YOU IDIOTIC BRAIN? I HAVE NEVER LIKED YOU! I NEVER WILL LIKE YOU! WHY DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE? FOR THREE YEARS YOU HAVE BEEN BUGGING ME AND IN THREE YEARS I HAVE NEVER SAID YES! AND YOU KNOW WHAT? I NEVER WILL SAY YES! YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME BUT YOU DON'T TREAT ME THAT WAY! YOU BET WITH YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT ME, YOU BUG ME, YOU PRANK ME… I DON'T KNOW _WHY _I'M THE ONLY ONE IN THIS SCHOOL THAT ACTUALLY HATES YOU! I REALLY DON'T NEED THIS RIGHT NOW, POTTER! JUST _GO AWAY!" _The chandelier that had been previously hanging from the roof suddenly smashed to the ground sending shards of glass everywhere.

Amidst all the screaming Lily ran out of the great hall, tears were streaming down her face. She ran up countless staircases and down corridors until she was hopelessly lost, there was one door ahead of her that was slightly open and seemed to be beckoning her. She cautiously went in and standing in front of her was a gigantic mirror. Around it was inscriptions in a strange language. Although she knew that there was something different about this mirror she didn't hesitate to look into it and see her most likely horrid reflection. When she looked into the mirror she saw something she never would have thought she would see.

There staring back at Lily was James Potter with his arm around her and in her arms was a baby, looking just like James. This was too much for her too handle. Lily staggered back and collapsed onto the ground and drifted into unconciousness.

**Disclaimer: Song is an extract from Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler. All Characters are J.K.Rowling's Properties. Lily's response to James asking her out is From Dudette13 story 101 responses to go out with me Evans. **

**A/N: Will update soon. Please Review**


	3. Aftermath

Lily drifted in and out of conciousness, too tired to open her eyes. All she felt was someone holding her hand.

"Sorry Mr Potter but she hasn't woken up yet; although I would appreciate it if you would stop bring Miss Evans flowers, you're clogging up the hospital wing."

"Oh, OK then," came a dissapointed voice from extremely near. So near, in fact, it made her jump, forcing her to open her eyes.

"Lily!" said James, "you're awake! Are you hurt? Are you OK? I'm sorry." He let go of her hand and looked down.

Lily simply nodded. The silence gave her a chance to look around. Her bedside table were covered in flowers, ranging in shape, colour and size.

"Wow," she breathed.

James was looking at her. Looking at her intently. Very intently. Looking straight into her eyes. She touched her head gingerly.

"How long have I been out cold?" Lily asked.

"Almost four days," he replied. He sounded cautious, as though afraid she might explode at any moment.

"Look, I'm sorry," they said in unison.

And from then on, for no apparent reason, they became friends.

The four marauders came to visit Lily almost everyday she was in the hospital wing...

"So how did you find me?" Lily asked.

"He followed you, just can't leave you alone can he, as you so loudly pointed out," sniggered Sirius.

"I had a lot on my mind," said Lily.

"Yeah well, the whole school didn't need to know about it, and I'm pretty sure you could have found a healthier way of expressing your anger than smashing chandeliers," he replied.

"Hey, can we just leave this alone please?" asked James.

"Yeah, can it Sirius," said Lily.

"Fine, fine, don't get your knickers in a knot!" exclaimed Sirius.

"Sirius stop, I'm experiencing bad mental images!" said James.

"I think it's time to change the subject. So, everyone excited about my birthday?" asked Lily.

"TOTALLY PUMPED," yelled Sirius, "hang on, when's your birthday?"

"30th of January," recited James.

"I didn't think of you as the type of person to have a birthday" interjected Peter thoughtfully.

"Everyone has a birthday Peter," Remus explained

"Anyway, Lily's birthday is on the 30th of January, 3 days after her Grandmother Claires birthday," said James.

"Stalker," said Sirius.

"Am not."

"Are Too."

"Am not."

"Are Too."

"Am not."

"Are Too."

"Guys, please stop it, I'm getting a headache." Lily cut in.

"Your getting a headache?" James asked, a note of panic in his voice, "You need to rest, we should go."

"No, I don't entirely want to be alone. Can you guys just stay but shut up?"

"I think that sounds like a good idea," said Remus.

The five of them sat in slence for a long time, before the boys had to leave.

"I'm alowed out tomorrow, the nurse said it was just a stress overload,"

"Yes, no one is supposed to contain that amount of emotions and no one is allowed to get stressed up to the point of explosion!" Sirius said gleefully.

"Um, Sirius, I didn't explode i collapsed."

"Yes but collapsing and exploding are exactly the same thing. Just like a bomb."

"Bombs don't collapse Sirius," Remus replied.

"Damn, I thought I had the whole muggle bomb thing down and packed," Sirius said, crestfallen.


	4. A birthday never to be forgotten

Lily Evans was running up the hallway, she had just been requested to see Professer Dumbledore and was therefore missing some of her transfiguration class. She skidded to a stop in front of the stone gargoyle.

"Licorice Snakes," she panted, completely out of breath. The stone gargoyle moved aside and Lily ran up the steps, two at a time. She burst into Dumbledores office and seated herself in the arm chair closest to her.

"Good Evening Miss Evans, and how are we today?" asked Professor Dumbledore.

"Fine thankyou Professor," she said breathlessly.

"I trust you've been taking it easy after your little spell?"

"Yes Professor," she said.

"Now then, let's get down to buisness. I've been wondering, how you're coping," said Dumbledore in a matter-of-fact tone.

"How I've been coping?" repeated Lily incrediously.

"After the death of your parents, I thought you migh have been a little shaken up, and Mr Potter proved that for us, didn't he?"

"How did you know?" asked Lily quietly.

But Dumbledore simply smiled.

"Are you sure you're OK?"

Lily nodded.

"OK, you may go."

Lily sprinted back to her transfiguration class.

--

The Marauders were doing the one thing that they all hated most, shopping for girls. Although it was torture, they were willing to do it because Lily was their friend. With a few tips from Mary McDonald, they managed to have a faint idea of what to do and what not to do.

James was completely stressing out, he's never bought a girl a present besides flowers, which was half the reason he went through so many girlfriends.

So far Remus was the only one who'd managed to find something; which was, as Sirius pointed out, no big surprise. He'd bought her a book entitled: 'Sunset' which was a fiction love story.

James had to stop Sirius from buying her some sexy, lacy underwear, and Peter from buying her a bludger.

Eventually Sirius and Peter settled on fancy quills and stationery, whilst James wandered into a jewellery by accident, and bought a silver necklace with three diamonds embedded. He's had a lot of money and he thought he's made a good choice. He hoped it would impress her.

--

Lily woke up in a bubbly, happy mood, and the birthday warmth spread through her before she actually remembered that it was her birthday. She pulled on some clothes and went to the Gryfindor common room, only to find Emily, Mary, Alice, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter waiting to greet her with food. Lots of food. There was bacon, eggs, cereal, toast, hash browns and every other food imaginable. She was flabbergasted.

And the food wasn't the first of it. She got stationery, clothes, perfumes, a book and something else. Something gorgeous. Something spectacular. That gift was from James. This was way more than she'd been expecting (understatement of the century). It made her feel loved. She liked that feeling, alot.


	5. A surprise

The month after Lily's birthday passed in a blur of classes and homework there was barely any time that was spent when someone wasn't studying. Lily and Remus who had both taken the most advanced classes were having the worst time trying to keep up with all the homework that they were receiving. After Arthimacy which was Lily and Remus's last class for the day the walked back together to Gryffindor tower.

"Has James mentioned anything about what he wants for his birthday to you?" Remus asked Lily.

Lily looked blankly back at him. "I don't even know when his birthday is," she replied quietly.

"It's the 27th of March, and I have know idea on what to get him."

"Neither do I, does that make us bad friends?" Lily questioned.

Remus looked at her with an appalled look on his face, "It doesn't matter to James, he's not the type of guy to get upset about a birthday present."

"There's a Hogsmead weekend coming up. Do you want to come with me? Not as a date, more like a friendly 'buying James his birthday present' gathering."

"Yeah, of course, I'll meet you at the lake," Remus replied before they each went up the stair cases to their dormitories.

Remus walked into his dormitory and dumped his bag onto his bed, he reached inside and got out his Arthimacy textbook and started to study for an upcoming test. James and Sirius walked in and started discussing the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend.

"So Moony, what should we do at Hogsmeade this weekend," Sirius asked.

"I can't go with you guys, I'm going with Lily," Remus replied absentmindedly.

"WHAT?" James shouted turning to face Remus, "Are you going on a date with her, Traitor!"

"Well if you'd let me explain I would be able to tell you that I am not going on a date I am merely going with Lily as friends, James." Remus replied looking James squarely in the eye.

"OK, that's fine, but if I find out it was a date, then prepare to die."

"Yes because you would really kill me and risk going to Azkaban and then never see Lily again." Remus stated.

James thought for a moment. "OK I won't kill you because I don't particularly want to go to Azkaban but I will inflict a lot of bodily harm upon you, if I find out it was a date."

"Protective, isn't he and she isn't even his girlfriend. He has it bad for her." Sirius commented.

--

Lily and Remus strolled along the path towards Hogsmeade. They were both deep in thought.

"Lily, I was thinking, do you want to buy a present for James together?"

"Sure, but I still don't know what to get him."

"I was thinking maybe something to do with Quidditch and some lollies." Remus suggested.

"Yeah, that should be OK." Lily agreed as they reached Hogsmead and stepped into Honeydukes. They selected some of almost every type of sweet and came out with the biggest bag of lollies that either of them had ever seen. They crossed the street to the Quidditch store and as they stepped inside they were greeted with the sight of racks and racks piled high with Quidditch supplies. They wandered around the store and finally settled on getting him a new Quaffle and his own actual Snitch so that he didn't have to keep stealing them.

--

James awoke on the morning of his birthday and found that none of his friends were in the dorm. Figuring that they were probably going to do the whole 'Breakfast in the common room thing' James got dressed and went into the common room. The common room was completely covered with decorations. Streamers and balloons were hung from the roof and the floor was covered in confetti. In the corner was a table which was absolutely covered in presents. Lounging on the couches was Sirius, Remus, Peter, Mary and Lily.

"James! Happy Birthday!" Lily shouted, running and giving James a friendly hug. Sirius got up from the couch and pointed at James,

"Open your presents now! Or I will!" Sirius yelled with a smile on his face. "Oh come on Peter's about to wet himself with anticipation." Peter blushed in response.

"Okay, Okay Padfoot." James replied walking over to the table that contained the presents. He levitated the presents over to the couch with his wand and then sat down on the couch next to Lily.

"Open mine first!" Sirius cried. James promptly reached into the pile and pulled out the present that was messily wrapped with flashing wrapping paper. He tore off the wrapping paper and was amazed at the presents he had received. It was an enchanted stag figurine, the stag was basically real apart for the fact that it was only the size of James's head. James opened Remus and Lily's joint present next. His face lit up as he saw the vast amount of candy that he had received. As he opened the other parcel from them his face lit up with joy at the fact that he actually owned his own snitch and had a brand new Quaffle for Quidditch practice. James opened Peter's present next. Peter had thoughtfully given him a new Gryffindor tie seeing has James had actually shredded his last tie trying to impress Lily a month ago.Mary had given him some Quidditch gloves as she was keeper on the Griffindor team, and knew all about James' love for the sport.

"Wow, thanks guys, but we better go, otherwise we'll be late for Defence Against the Dark Arts," said James.

--

The day passed quite uneventfully (apart from an extremely hungry plant trying to eat him in Herbology) and by the end of the day James was quite exhausted with the amount of people that kept asking how hie birthday was. James thought that if you're walking around with your friends looking very happy it's quite obvious how you are feeling. James was in his dormitory doing homework when Lily came in.

"Hi, James," Lily said sitting down in the overstuffed arm chair next to James' bed.

"Hey," James replied not looking up from his homework.

"James..."

"Yes." He replied completely absorbed in his homework.

"I was wondering if you were going to go eat dinner?" Lily asked.

"What? What's the time? 6:30! I'm half an hour late! Do you think there will still be food left?" James panicked.

"Of course, if you hurry." Lily replied. James jumped up, practiclly threw his homework on the ground and raced out of the dormitory. "Boys and Food, nothing can stand in the way." Lily muttered as she followed James to the Great Hall.

--

Lily left dinner early along with Mary saying that they wanted to get some homework done, they were actually leaving to go get the common room ready for James' surprise party. Sirius, Remus, ans Peter were to keep James occupied for at least half an hour. Lily and Mary ran up to the common room and using their wands started re-arranging the furniture. Everything was to go against the walls and a massive table was placed near the portraite hole and covered in foods and drinks. In the corner Lily had charmed a muggle CD player to play music and Mary had changed the floor into a flashing dance floor, a disco ball was hung from the roof and flashing rainbow lights were charmed to float around. By the time Mary and Lily finished they were exhausted. They both fell onto the couches and Lily got out the magical mirror that she had borrowed from James.

"Sirius," Lily said looking into the mirror.

"Yes, my dear Lily." Sirius replied appearing in the mirror.

"Idiot." Lily muttered. "The room's ready."

"Can I have a look?" Sirius asked. Lily tilted the mirror so that Sirius could see the room. "Good job, we'll be there in five minutes." Sirius replied and cut the connection.

"They'll be here in 5!" Lily shouted, her stomach felt like it had butterflies in it and she was actually nervous.

"OK!" Mary shouted back. They both positioned themselves in front of the potrait hole holding massive party poppers. The potraite hole opened and James walked in, Lily and Mary both jumped out and their party poppers exploded showering James in confetti.

"Surprise!" Mary and Lily yelled along with Sirius, Remus and Peter who had come in after James.

"Wow! This is awesome!" James cried, looking around the room.

"I know Prongsie, and it was all my idea," boasted Sirius before he was smacked on the head by Remus. "Well lets crank up the music and start partying!" Sirius shouted, bounding over to the CD player adn switching it on, at once hip hop music filled the room. James handed out butterbeer bottles to the six friends and before they could actually do anything other Gryffindors came out of their dormitories to see what was going on and joined in the fun.

--

About 1 hour into the party Mary and Sirius were both completely drunk. They had both had at least three bottles of firewhiskey from Sirius' secret stash and were chatting each other up.

"You know Sirius, you are just sooooo hot," Mary slurred.

"You're right, I think I am sooooo hot. You're not so bad yourself." Sirius replied. "You're so much better than my other girlfriends they are so dumb, and you're much better looking and you are so much nicer, don't tell them I said that will you."

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, it can be our little secret," said Mary.

"You know Mary I really want to kiss you,"

"I want to kiss you too," Mary replied. Sirius leant towards Mary, their heads got closer, as soon as their lips touched they started passionately making out.

-

"James, James!" Lily shouted scanning the sea of faces.

"Yes?" Came a voice from behind Lily. She spun around so fast that she lost her footing and crashed into James and fell into his arms. Lily awkwardly step backwards and blushed.

"Sorry, i didn't mean to -"

"- Fall into my arms, don't worry about it, if you ever want to fall into my arms then be my guest." James said. Lily laughed and said,

"Sirius and Mary are in the corner making out. I think they're drunk."

"Yes, I think that might be the case. Probably from Sirius' secret stash of firewhisky."

"Before they do something they regret should we seperate them and lock them in their dorms?" Lily suggested.

"Brilliant idea! Let's catch them unaware," James and Lily both got out their wands and snuck up on Mary and Sirius.

_"Levicorpus_!" they shouted together and Sirius and Mary were both hoisted into the air by their ankles. Lily flashed James a grin and started to tug an upside down Mary to her dormitory. Once Lily and Mary reached their dormitory Mary realeased Mary and she crashed onto the bed.

"Ow," Mary whined, "That hurt!"

"Serves you right, you shouldn't have gotten drunk. Go to bed now or you'll have an even worse hangover in the morning." Lily conjured a bucket and transfigured a goblet of water into a hangover potion. After making sure that Mary was asleep she went back downstairs. There was hardly anyone left, everyone except for Peter and Remus had gone to bed.

"Do you guys want some help in cleaning up?" Lily asked.

"Definately," Peter replied. Lily said a few simple cleaning charms and all the rubbish and decorations vanished. Another wave of her wand transported all the food and drink to the kitchens and one last wave caused all the furniture to return to their usual spots.

"Goodnight Guys," Lily said

"See you tomorrow," Remus replied whilst Peter nodded.

Lily smiled. The party had been extremely successful. For James and Mary (she'd been crushing on Sirius for years). As she trudged up to bed, she realised how much James enjoying his party meant to her. It was alot more than she'd expect.


	6. Forgotten Memories

Mary woke with a headache. A really bad headache. A really, really bad headache. She also felt sick. Very sick. Very, very sick. She felt like vomiting. The bucket next to the bed was mocking her. There was a goblet full of hangover potion next to the bed, which she gulped down gratefully. Her head cleared and she sudenly felt very hungry. She got ready and ran down to breakfast.

--

Sirius woke up with a headache, his head was fuzzy and he wasn't feeling very well. What had happened last night? He could remember up to the point when he started to drink firewhisky with Mary. What happened after that. He groaned and rolled over. He'd been too drunk to put on pyjamas or close his bed hangings.

"James?" he called.

"Yes?" he replied.

"What happened last night?"

"Er... you probably don't want to know. But I'll tell you anyway. You pashed Mary McDonald. If you want to know exactly how bad you looked, or exactly how much you drank, I'm sure Lily would be more than willing to tell you," James grinned.

"Oh, OK," said Sirius, "Mary's pretty hot anyway."Sirius rolled over and, grateful for the Saturday, went back to sleep.

--

"OK, so exactly how bad was it?" Mary asked Lily.

"The party or the wonderful show you and Sirius put on?" Lily said.

"What? What show did we put on?"

"Well there was the whole, 'Your so hot Sirius, You're so hot Mary' and there was the 'You're so much better than my other ex girlfriends who are so ugly, dumb and not very nice, because you're so nice, pretty and smart Mary' and the 'don't tell my girlfriends that I said they suck' and the 'your secret's safe with me' and then there was the best part." Lily recounted. Mary was staring at her with a completely horrified expression.

"What was the best part? Tell me!"

"The best part was the 'let's kiss' part where you and Sirius started making out on the couch for half an hour."

"Oh My God! I can't belive I did that! Why didn't you stop me?"

"Well... we did eventually it was just fun watching you two act like idiots."

--

Sirius passed Mary in the hallway after breakfast and was about to stop and talk to her when she blushed and quickly walked away. He wasn't entirly sure but by the end of the day he thought that Mary had been avoiding him. When they were hanging down at the lake Lily and Mary came and sat with them and everytime he tried to get Mary's attentio she just kept ignoring him. He had made at least ten attemps to speak to Mary but had just been ignored. Sirius was beginning to feel rejected. Actually he was beginning to feel like James, chasing after a girl that didn't want him. Wait, that was wrong, Sirius wasn't chasing after Mary, because the girls chase after Sirius not the other way round! And although he actually liked Mary he had gone into a state of denial.

--

"Hey Mary, Mary! Mary? MARY!" Sirius called down the corridor.

Mary couldn't avoid for much longer. She was going to have to just turn around and get over her embarassment.

"Yes?" she replied.

"Hey, why are you avoiding me?" Sirius asked.

_What? Surely he must know, even if that was something he did all the time, he wouldn't be acting _this_ casual!_ Mary thought.

"Don't you, don't you know?" asked Mary.

"Know what?"

"Know why I've been avoiding you, what we did last night?!" she whispered.

"Know what we did last night?" Sirius racked his brains, "I think James might have mentioned that we snogged or someething, but come on, we were both drunk and -"

"Sirius, it was a lot worse than you think," Mary interrupted.

"Why, what happened?" asked Sirius curiously.

"Um, are you sure you want to know?"

"I think so."

"The whole story?"

"Pretty sure..."?

"The details?"

"Just tell me!"

"Fine, OK, I'll tell you know."

"Well?"

"Apparently, you told me that I was much hotter, nicer and cooler than your previous girlfriends and that they sucked and then we pashed on the couch for half and hour," Mary blurted out.

Sirius stood there gobsmacked, one of the only girls he had actually liked for reasons beside body image and he'd gone and ruined it.

"Hey..." he said slowly, "we should so get Lily and James completely drunk!"

"Wow, you bounce back fast."

"Then hopefully their true feelings would be expressed in the form of slurred sentrences and hiccups!"

"Yeah, right." Sirius was really dumb sometimes.

"Excuse me for a second, I'm going to go plot how I can slip extremely strong alchohol in James' drink. Bye! Oh, and by the way, let's just forget about the other night, OK?"

"Yeah OK." Mary smiled. She was glad they'd gotten over the other nights occurance. Shed really missed Sirius the twelve hours she had been avoiding him


	7. Sirius in the library?

"Um, Mary?"asked Lily.

"Mmm?"

"I need to ask you something..."

"Yeah, what?"

"Are you doing anything over the holidays?"

"Nope, but my brothers and their friends have taken over the house, and I so don't want to stay in a house with a group of unattractive, smelly, teenage boys. Can I come over to your house?"asked Mary

"Um, yeah, I gotta tell you something..." she said quietly.

"Lily? What is it?"

"Um, something happened to my parents in January."

"Yeah?" asked Mary cautiously.

"Um, they died, in a car crash." Lily said, her eyes swimming with tears, her voice barely audible.

Mary's jaw dropped, she looked horrified, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" she whispered. Putting an arm around her.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I found out the day I collapsed."

"Wow, your parents die, then James embarrassed you in front of the whole school! No wonder you collapsed!"

"And there's another reason I collapsed," said Lily quietly.

"REALLY?" asked Mary gobsmacked.

"Yes, my sister, you know Petunia?"

"Yes."

"Well, she took the house and got rid of all my furniture. She said she never wanted to see me again. That's why I have nowhere to stay for the holidays," said Lily.

"Oh my God, you poor thing! I can't believe it, what a stress overload!"

"There's another reason I collapsed aswell..." said Lily even more quietly.

"YOU POOR CHILD!" shrieked Mary.

"When I ran out of the Great Hall, I ran into a room with a mirror in it."

"And?"

"When I looked in it..."

"Yes?"

"I saw..."

"Yes?"

"I saw ..."

"Yes?"

"I saw James with me, and I was holding a baby!"

Lily was almost hysterical.

"Oh my God, I wonder what that means."

"Yeah. But just don't, just don't tell anyone. OK?"

"Yeah, OK."

"Thanks," Lily smiled. She felt so much better now that she'd got that of her chest.

"Are you going to tell the boys you have no where to stay?" asked Mary curiously.

"I don't think so, only if I really have to."

They packed up their books from the library and headed towards the Gryiffindor common room

--

"_Um, something happened to my parents in January."_Sirius turned to see Lily having a whispered conversation with Mary McDonald.

_"Yeah?" asked Mary cautiously._

_"Um, they died, in a car crash." Lily said, her eyes swimming with tears, her voice barely audible. '_Oh my god!' thought Sirius.

_Mary's jaw dropped, she looked horrified, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" she whispered. Putting an arm around her._

_"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I found out the day I collapsed."_"James, why did you have to choose that day to sing to her? Why?"

_"Wow, your parents die, then James embarrassed you in front of the whole school! No wonder you collapsed!"_

_"And there's another reason I collapsed," said Lily quietly._

_"REALLY?" asked Mary gobsmacked. _Sirius pressed his ear closer to the boskshelf he was hiding behind.

_"Yes, my sister, you know Petunia?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Well, she took the house and got rid of all my furniture. She said she never wanted to see me again. That's why I have nowhere to stay for the holidays," said Lily. _

That was too much for Sirius. He sprinted to go and find James, and the other Marauders.

--

"James, JAMES!" yelled Sirius.

"Bloody hell Sirius, I'm just here! What do you want?"

"James, I was just in the library and I -"

"WHAT?" the three of them cried in unison.

"I said, I was in the-"

"Yes we heard you! You were in the library? Wow!" said James.

"Yeah, you owe me 5 galleons James!" said Remus.

"Oh yeah, that bet we made in first year! I'd forgotten about that!"

"SHUT UP! When I was in the library I heard -" started Sirius.

"I still can't believe it," muttered Peter.

"God, me neither!" sighed Remus.

"Our little boy is growing up!" said James in a mock baby voice.

"Oh - my - God," said Sirius starting to get really annoyed, "just listen!"

"Fine, fine, what is it?" asked James.

"When I was in the library, I overheard Lily say to Mary that the day you sang to her, she found out that her parents had died, and that her sister had taken the house and sold all her furniture, so therefore she has nowhere to stay in the holidays," Sirius said in a rush.

"Oh my..." whispered James.

"Wow, Sirius said therefore! What does therefore even mean?"

"Shutup Peter, do you know what this means? I can invite her over for the holidays!"

"Good way to make her go out with you!" said Sirius.

"Sirius, James values their frienship way too much to ask her out again, don't you James?" asked Remus.

James remained silent.


	8. Meeting the Potters

"Lily!" James shouted running down the hallway to catch up to Lily.

"Yes, James." Lily answered turning to face him.

"Well seeing as we both have a free period now, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me in the library?"

"James Potter wants to go to the library?"

"Well Sirius broke the bet by going in there when he was eavesdropping on you conversation with Mary the other day. So it doesn't matter if any of the Marauders go into the library now." James turned back to see Lily frozen to the spot with a horrified look on her face. "Lily, what's wrong?"

"Sirius heard our conversation? That was supposed to be private!" Lily was visibly panicking now. "How much did he hear?"

"All of it I think." James answered. Lily had gone pale and steadied herself on the wall.

"And?" she said slowly.

"I just know that your parents passed away and you need somewhere to stay for the holidays," he said in a caring tone.

Lily's body would have completely relaxed if the memory of her parent's death hadn't been so painful. "Yeah," she said, trying to sound calm.

"And I was wondering..." James started.

Lily signaled for him to continue.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to stay at my place for the holidays," he asked, holding his breath.

Lily stared at him, looking right into his eyes. He was beginning to feel self-conscious.

"I mean, only if you want to..."

"Oh James, of course I want to!" exclaimed Lily. She beamed at him and hugged him. "Thank you so much! But, will your parents mind?"

"Nah, our house is big enough. Remus and Peter are coming half-way through. Mary can come as well if you like," said James.

"What about Sirius?" Lily asked curiously, "is he busy, or have you just decided to ditch him?"

James laughed, "No, didn't you know? He hated his home so much he ran away to live with me."

"Wow! I wouldn't be brave enough to do that," said Lily admiringly.

"But you _are_ coming to live with me -"

"I didn't say that! I'm _staying_ with you. Plus, I'm not running away, I've got nowhere else to go."

--

The end of term approached very quickly. Classes finished and the last Quidditch match of the season secured the house cup for Gryffindor, the final feast decorations were amazing and even the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were excited because it meant that Slytherin had lost, yet again.

Lily hopped on the Hogwarts Express with James and Sirius whilst they waited for Remus, Mary and Peter. Soon they were all in the one compartment and had made them selves at home for the trip back. James and Sirius had conjured some cushions and they were all seated comfortably. James and Sirius were tossing the Quaffle and Remus and Mary were playing a very intent game of wizarding chess. Lily was reading a book and Peter was sleeping.

After about an hour the food cart came down the hallway. Sirius got some of everything and conjured a table and covered it in all the food.

"There. We now have a feast that is almost as good as the ones at Hogwarts," Sirius said happily. All of them paused to eat lunch and started talking before resuming what they had been previously doing. By the end of the train ride Lily had finished three books, Mary, Remus, Sirius and James had had a massive chess competition and Mary had ended up as champion and Peter had caught up on a lot of extra sleep. Once the train stopped all six of them packed everything up, said goodbye and dragged their trunks off the train and onto the platform.

"Stay close to me!" James shouted grabbing Lily's hand and dragging her forwards through the swarming crowd of people.

"What about Sirius?" Lily asked, shouting to be heard.

"He'll be there before us, somehow the crowd just parts for him." James replied chuckling. "There they are!" He pointed to a couple waving them over. James looked extremely similar to his Dad.

"Hey, Mum, Dad, this is Lily," James announced.

"Very nice to meet you dear," James' Mum said smiling.

"Yes, very nice," said James' Dad, holding out his hand for her to shake.

"Hey Sirius, how are you?" James' Mum asked. Sirius had just arrived.

"Great, I managed to chat up a few girls on the way and the crowd completely parted for me," Sirius said. They all laughed although Lily was thinking _'I thought you liked Mary, Sirius'_

"Come on everyone or we'll miss the portkey," James' Mum said ushering them all to the end of the platform where a lot of portkeys were waiting. They all put one hand on the portkey and gripped their trunks tightly with the other hand, the portkey lit up and they were all jerked up and in less then ten seconds they all had landed on soft grass.

"Here we are, home," Mr Potter said, standing up at the same time as everyone else.

"Where's your house?" Lily asked James, he pointed behind him, Lily looked at the house gobsmacked, "James, you live in a mansion!"


	9. In the Mansion

Lily started unpacking her trunk into the massive walk in wardrobe. The bedroom that she had been given was double the size of her Hogwarts dorm room at school. There was a king sized bed and an ajoining ensuite bathroom. The Potter mansion looked huge on the outside but on the isnide it seemed even bigger.

The house was filled with countless living and entertaining areas, bedrooms, bathrooms and eating areas. There were long, winding coridors, hallways and staircases, all leading to different parts of the house.

After a delicious dinner, made by the two house elves that served the Potteres, James and Sirius met Lily in one of the lounge rooms to talk, as Mrs Potter had installed charms on the bedroom doors that wouldn't let the opposite sex through after 9:00 pm.

"So Sirius," said Lily, "what's going on with you an Mary?" James, Sirius and her were sitting on a couch in one one of the many living rooms. The fireplace was crackling away and they were all well fed and comfortable.

"Nothing!" Sirius said pretending to be outraged but at the same time, a blush rising up hiss neck.

"Oh come on, Sirius you so have a crush on her!" said Lily.

"No I don't! I mean, I'm not saying that I don't like her or anything like that, because I do like her, but I just like her, not like her, like her! If you know what I mean," Sirius bluted out at a hundred miles an hour.

"Oh my God, it is sooo obvious! Gees Sirius, at least try to cover it up a little bit, you're embarassing yourself!" both Lily and James struggled to keep their laughter from bursting out.

"I'm not having this conversation with you anymore," declared Sirius, a definate blush in his cheeks.

"Oooooooooooooooooh, Sirius and Mary sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" recited James.

"Going, going, gone!" declared Sirius as he walked out the door.

"Do reckon he actually likes her?" James asked Lily.

"Yes!" was her reply.

On her way up to bed, Lily saw Sirius walking up to his bedroom. She felt sorely tempted to tease him about his evident feelings for Mary, but her guilty concience decided against it.

"Hey Sirius!" she said.

"Hey."

"Look, sorry about the whole Mary thing -"

"Nah, don't mention it. It was all true anyway." He winked and smiled a cheeky grin before heading a different way. Lily was gobsmacked that he'd just admitted he liked Mary.

"Because she likes you, and I'm not just saying that!" she called towards him.

Slowly, he turned around. "Really?" he asked, more to himself than Lily. This was very odd, as Lily didn't think Sirius had ever doubted whether a girl had liked him or not before.

--

Lily didn't think it was possible for a house to have a breakfast that matched Hogwarts', but the next morning she was proven wrong. After an amazing breakfast, Lily went on a long walk in the extensive gardens that surrounded the Potters' house and read her book. This was the schedule for most of the many days leading up to Remus Peter and Mary's arrival, (Mrs Potter said that Mary was more than welcome to stay).

At the Potters' house, she relt relaxed, peacful, serene. After her parents' death, this was a very rare thing for Lily to feel, though she covered it up in the opresence of others. She thought about them all the time. When the shock, truth and understanding of the horrible situation had sunk in, she'd felt more pain than possibly imaginable, like she was bare, unprotected, like a piece of her had been cruely ripped from her. But she'd thought alot about what it meant to die, and she decided that one day, she would see her parents again. The thought numbed her pain, but didn't get rid of it completely. She still had to live the rest of her life parentless.

Having her friends close by all the time helped. Alot. She didn't know what she would have done if she hadn't been made to laugh. Laughter. The thing that did it. the thing that got her through it all. The thing that held her together. It was magic really, laughter.

Lily's only regret was that she didn't tell her friends earlier, but she'd found it hard to admit, even to herself, that they were really dead, gone, forever.

Having thought long and hard about everthing that had happened lately, to understand everything that had happened lately, lifted a weight off her shoulders. A weight that had engulfed her without her realising it. A weight that had kept her. Now that weight had gone, there was no judging what she could do.

Lily's holidays went on, full of happiness, content, and laughter. She, James and Sirius found multiple ways to amuse themselves before the arrival of Remus, Petrer and Mary.


	10. Interesting Conversations

Remus, Peter and Mary stepped out of the fireplace, coughing and brushing the ashes off thier robes**.**

"Hey, how are you, what have you been doing?" asked Lily.

"Oh, my God! It's been the worst first half of the holidays I have ever experienced! I didn't know our music system could be turned up so loud! Well, actually I did, but no one had ever tried it before... I hate my brother's friends! And my brother when he's with his friends! He turns all, I'm Mr Tough Guy. So, frustrating!" Mary seemed quite out of breath, "So yeah, feels good now I've got that off my chest. Am I going to be given a tour or what?"

The boys looked at her with blank faces, but Lily, being accustomed to Mary's sudden outbursts of energy, said calmly, "I'll show you around, can she share a room with me, James?"

James nodded, whilst Sirius sniggered.

--

"So... has anything happened between you and James yet?" Mary asked Lily with a sly expression on her face.

"No of course not, that's disgusting!" said Lily pretending to look shocked, but really she had known the topic of James' old crush would be brought up in a matter of time.

"Awww, what a shame. I know you've just been dying for something to happen -"

"Mary," Lily interrupted, "drop it, nothing is ever going to happen between me and James."

"Oh, OK," she said starting to turn around. "YOU'RE IN DENIAL! DENIAL DENIAL DENIAL! Oh my God, you are so obviously in love with him! Gees Lily, at least try to keep your feelings under control! Lily and James, awwwwwwwwwwwwwww how cute!"

"Mary, please no -"

"DENIAL, DENIAL, DENIAL!"

"Oh shut up."

"DENIAL, DENIAL, DENIAL!"

"Mary, he doesn't feel that way anymore!"

"What, so you do?"

"No!"

"DENIAL, DENIAL, DENIAL!"

"Me and James will never be together. We're completly different anyway -"

"OPPOSITES ATTRACT! DENIAL, DENIAL, DENIAL!"

"Whatever, hey where's my green jumper that you borrowed?"

"In the DENIAL cuboard over DENIAL there. DENIAL!"

Lily turned to the cupboard in order to hide the deep blush that was threatening to creep up her neck, and the smile that was threatening to jump to her lips, and she opened it. That's when Sirius fell out.

"Oh my... Sirius, what the hell were you doing in our cupboard?" Lily exclaimed.

"What! It's where I go when I want some 'alone time'!" Sirius said defensavly, as if trying to suggest that there was some possible way of making hiding in a cupboard sound like a completly normal activity.

"How much did you hear?" Lily asked nervously.

"Not much, to tell you the truth, just something about opposites attracting and being in denial. So, who's in denial?" asked Sirius casually.

Mary looked at Lily with a triumphant smile on her face. Lily seized the opportunity and said, "Mary! Mary is! She loves you you know, she even admits it." she said to Sirius.

And with that, Mary got the cupboard door and slammed it on Sirius' head, causing him to collapse.

"Mary, what the hell was that for?" Lily shrieked, hovering over sirius.

"Well, now when he wakes up, he'll think it was a dream!" Mary smiled cheerfully.

"Not when he wakes up in a cupboard!"

"That's why we need to put him in his bed." said Mary, started to drag him by his armpits. Lily helped him until they reached Sirius and James' room, which, thankfully, wasn't that far away.

"Shall we take his shoes off?" Lily asked nervously,

"Yeah, I think so," replied Mary.

"Phew!" exclaimed Lily, peeling off one of his socks. James chose that moment to walk in.

"WHAT THE HELL?" James said as he took in the unconsious Sirius, the flustered Lily, and Mary still trying to take off one of Sirius' socks.

"James," Lily began politely, "would you mind putting Sirius in his bed, and if he doesn't wake up in five minutes, please get your Mum to take a look at him.

With that, the two girls ran giggling and shouting from the room.

James looked at the doorway that the two girls had just been standing in. He dragged Sirius into his bed, straining with the effort, and after making sure that he was tucked in, grabbed the jug of water next to Sirius' bed and promptly emptied the water onto his head.

"What the hell!?" Sirius cried, jolting upright. "What was that for?"

"That was to wake you up."

"I was having the best dream and you just ruined it, idiot."

"Dream?"

"Yes of course. It's not like I normally go around evesdropping on people by hiding in closets and then falling out when the door is opened, then being told that Mary is in denial and actually is in love with me and I doubt that Mary would ever knock me unconscious by slamming my head against the closet door."

"Are you being serious?" James laughed.

"Of course I'm being serious, I am Sirius!"

"Shut up, I can't believe you dreamed that."

"Neither. Anyway I want to play exploding snap."

"What?"

"You know that game -"

"I know how to play it, but it's not very fun with just two people."

"I figured, so let's have a tournament. With everyone!"

--

The six teenagers sat in a circle playing exploding snap when Sirius noticed that Mary had gone extremely pale, (he'd been noticing rather alot about Mary lately).

"Mary, what's wrong? You look unhealthily pale." commented Sirius.

After a few moments silence... "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

"What? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT!" screamed Lily.

"S - s - s - s - SPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRR!! SPIDER SPIDER SPIDER SPIDER!" Mary shrieked.

Panicking, Lily screamed, "WHERE? WHERE?"

And then she saw it, the biggest spider she'd ever seen.She screamed. The rest of them eventually made sense of the shouting and pointing until Peter, Mary and Lily were screaming, SIrius and James were a little calmer, but still panicking, whilst Remus just laughed.

"That spider is most likely more afraid of you and it's only about half a centimetre big." Remus said. "And Sirius, Mary just passed out."

"What?!" Sirius cried rushing over to Mary while Lily jumped onto one of the couches and statred screaming even louder. James pulled of his shoe and made to squash the spider when Lily shouted out to him.

"Don't you dare end that spider's life!"

"Fine," James replied and grabbing a cup from the coffee table scopped up the spider and tipped the spider out the window.

"Guys, a little help over here," Sirius said gesturing to a deathly pale and unconscious Mary.

"Sorry, I'll go get Mum," said James.

Lily noticed the look on Sirius' face was extremely tender and caring, and doubted whether he'd have that look on his face if ot had of been anyone else who had passed out.

--

_Knock, knock._

"Come in!" called Mary, who happened to be sitting alone in her room reading a book, "Hey James, what's up?"

"Er... Mary? I need some help," said James, a deep blush in his cheeks.

"Oooooooooooooh, James Potter is asking me, for help! What kind of help James?"

"Um, some girly help," said James, looking at his feet.

"What, do you need to borrow an eyelash curler? Or do need to use some of my new foundation," sniggered Mary.

"Mary, be serious, and you can't tell _anyone," _said James

Mary, hearing his rare, serious tone, said,"Sure, what is it?"

"I, I, no, sorry, I don't know why I'm in here. I'll go now -"

"James!"

"Ok. Ineed to know, I need to know, IneedtoknowhowLilyfeelsaboutme," James blurted out.

"What?"

"I need to know how Lily feels about me," James repeated slowly, looking at his feet.

"Why?" asked Mary, looking schocked, "I thought it was obvious!"

"What?" asked James taken aback.

"Can't you tell?" asked Mary curiously. "Gees James, are you blind or what!"

"What? Why! Does she like me or not?" he asked eagerly.

"Of course she does! She's all over you! She practically drools every time she she sees you!" Mary half-shouted.

"Mary, shhhh!" said James beaming.

"She's just dying for you to make your move. She' s been waiting for ages! You've got to do something really romantic!" said Mary.

"Like what?" asked James, who was listening intently.

"Oh I think I've got something in mind," Mary smiled slyly.


	11. A plan

It was the fourth Sunday of the holidays and Lily Evans was lying in her bed thinking. Just thinking. Thinking about the holidays. One year ago she would have spewed at the thought of staying with James for the holidays. Her feelings for him had changed so much. They used to be frustration. Now? she didn't know what her feelings for James were now. But no matter what the emotion, she had always thought about him. She felt a burning sensation in the pit of her stomach. A longing in her heart, whether that longing be to be with him, or ring his neck. James. She never before had considered ever liking James, in that sort of way, but considering the fact that James was now one of her best friends it seemed so unlikely that she would ever have a chance to be with him. Did she even want to be with him? All she knew was tht she felt for James, alot. Lily had turned him down so harshly, time and time again that it seemed quite possible for James to just turn her down as badly as she had; if she ever asked of course. Suddenly, Lily realised, that if James was to get another girlfriend when they all went back to school, that it would absoultly break her heart, tear her heart, shred her heart into indistinguishable little piecs, like a scrambled jigsaw. She had to tell him, she had to tell him that after all this time, she actually liked him. She actually like James. She actually loved James. the realsisation hit her. Hit her hard. So hard hard, she could barely breathe. She got out of bed and got dressed as quickly as she could.

"I've got to tell him!" She said to herself. There was a knock on the door and assuming it was Mary, she flung it open.

"Is this a bad time?" Remus asked.

"No, it's OK, do you want to come in?" she asked, moving aside. Remus walked inside the room and Lily closed the door behind him.

"So, what do you need to tell who?" he asked looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

Lily had always trusted Remus, even when she hated the James and Sirius. She trusted him even more now she'd gotten to know him. She didn't know what happened, her instincs led her.

"Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"Promise."

"Okay, well I think I realised it a while ago, I'm crazy about James. I just wouldn't admit it. And I would probably feel like killing myself if he got with anyone but me. Besides I don't want to weird out our friendship because after all this time he probably doesn't even like me anymore." Lily blurted quickly, realising what she had just said an starting to blush.

"Well I must say, that I highly doubt that James doesn't still like you. If you want I could talk to him about it."

"Absoloutly not! If he finds out, it has to be me that tells him. If someone else does then I'll seem like a coward."

"But are you really going to tell him?"

"I am, I mean I will, I just need the right time." Lily replied with a determined look on her face.

--

Remus ran up one of the hallways and knocked quickly, before throwing open Mary's door.

"MARY! I have to tell you something! It's about Lily!" Remus said bursting into the room. James and Mary had been talking but upon hearing someone running in the hallway James had hid under the bed, in case it had been Lily.

"Yes?" Mary asked.

"Well I was just talking to Lily and she actually really likes James but doesn't know how to tell him and wants to wait for the right time to tell him but she made me promise not to tell James but she didn't make me promise not to tell you!" James was secretly glowing with pleasure under the bed.

"Well, fortunatly I had already guessed that. Don't worry ,I have a plan." Remus seemed to be having a mental debate over whether or not he should be part of this plan.

"What can I do to help?" Remus asked.

"Keep Sirius amused." Was Mary's reply. Once Remus left James got up from under the bed and looked at Mary. "We start our plan at exactly 10 am."


	12. A picnic

James didn't know how to ask Lily. He was barely ever embarrassed! He was trying to decide whether to ask her casually, like it was no big deal, (_yeah right, _he thought to himself) or whether to make a really big deal out of it.

"So," Mary nudged James, "have you asked her yet?"

"No, not ye-"

"WELL WHY THE HELL NOT?"

"I'm working on it OK? Just give me some time!"

"Some time to do what?" Lily asked curiously as she walked into the room, followed by Sirius.

"Some time to ask you whether you wanted to come on a picnic with me," James said breathlessly.

"Oh, can I come?" asked Sirius hopefully.

"No Sirius, you have things to do," said Remus sternly.

"No I don't! I really want to go!" he said, not comprehending why he wasn't invited.

"Sirius, you - have - things - to - do!" said Remus, a bit desperately.

"Oooooooooooooooooooooh, right!" nodded Sirius, finally getting it. He winked at James, "I'll leave you two lovebirds together then shall I?"

"Yes Sirius, you shall," said Remus. In all this time, Lily hadn't been able to get a word in. Her cheeks were now a shade of deep red and she wasn't quite sure what to say. Remus wouldn't have gone behind her back and told James that she really liked him would he? No, he wouldn't.

"James, I would love to," she said, feeling extremely self-concious.

--

"Here we are," James said putting down the picnic basket and spreading the rug on a patch of green grass which was surrounded by flowers and plants. James started pulling out food and gestured for Lily to sit down.

"So why are we actually having a picnic?" Lily asked slyly.

"I just thought it might be nice to get away for a while. Not as a picnic date or anything just a picnic as friends." James thought he may have noticed a look on Lily's face, which he recognised as dissapointment, which was instantly covered with a smile.

"Oh, Ok." Lily said picking up a sandwhich and starting to eat. "Did you make this or did the house's elves?" she asked gesturing to the picninc basket.

"The house elves," James replied. Lily stared at the sky and started to think about how she could tell James that she liked him.

"James, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For turning you down so harshly every time you asked me out. I didn't realise how nice a person you actually are, and if i had then maybe I's have -"

"- have said yes?"

"Probably," Lily sheepishly bit her lip.

"What about now, I mean, if I asked you to go out with me? What would you say?" James asked looking at Lily straight in the eye.

"Well... I'd say yes."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I only realised it this morning but I really like you James, more than a friend and I had to tell you because it would break my heart if you got with someone else, but I didn't know how to tell-" James kissed her. Not a passionate kiss, but a sweet kiss. A kiss that sent shivers up her spine and a spark of energy throught her body. After all this time she was finally kissing James and it felt, amazing. That was when Lily and James both realised, that they both really wanted to be together. Lily's hand was cupping James' cheek and his arm was around her waist. Finally they broke apart and Lily cocked her head at James. "How did you know that I liked you?"

"I didn't, I just liked you so much that I thought I would take a chance and ask you out again. And maybe just maybe this time, you'd say yes. So, go out with me Evans?"

Lily didn't have to say anything to answer James' question, the kiss that she planted unexpectedly on his lips was enough to satisfy him altogether.


	13. Truth or dare

"Lily! Oh my God, how did it go?" Mary asked, bursting with excitment.

On an ordinary day, Lily would have curious as to how Mary knew that it was not going to your average, everyday picnic, but this was no ordinary day. In fact, Lily couldn't even think of a day that had been so extraordinary. Lily tried to keep her emotion at a reaonable, not-embarrassing level... but she couldn't. She exploded.

"Oh my God! Today was the best day of my life! Guess what happened Mary? Guess what happened. at first it was just just your everage picnic, but I could feel something was going to happen Mary, I could feel something amazing was going to happen! I mean, how amazing is that? Pretty amazing if you ask me! Anyway, we had all of this great food, and then, and then..." Lily faltered to a stop after her exuberant speech.

"Then what?" Mary asked, her eyes alight with exhilaration, just at hearing the story.

"Then.." Lily breathed in deeply. She hadn't actually said it out loud yet.

"Yes?" Mary prompted.

"Then... WE KISSED!" Lily shrieked in Mary's ear.

"OH MY GOD!" shrieked Mary in responsed.

They both danced around in their bedroom untill they were exhausted, and Lily had expended all her energy.

"I just can't believe it," Lily whispered, laying on her bed, "I just can't believe that someone as fantastic as him, could be interested in me! Me, Lily Evans! And I can't believe I didn't do anything sooner, I mean he's such an awesome kisser!"

"So you admit that you like him?"

"OF COURSE I DO! DID YOU NOT GET THAT FROM THE WHOLE KISSING BIT, OR WHAT?"

"Sorry! Just asking. It's just, you seemed so protective about it before."

"Yeah well, things have changed now haven't they?" Lily said. "Things have changed alot," she muttered to herself.

--

"James! How did it go?" Remus asked.

"Okay."

"Really?" asked Peter.

"It was FANTASTIC! The best day of my life! I finally kissed Lily Evans!"

"Thank God you got over your off in the fairy world stage and finally made a move cause look at Sirius." Remus said.

"What do you mean?" James asked.

"Look at him." Remus replied as James turned to look at Sirius.

"What the hell is wrong with him?"

"You actually don't know?" Peter asked.

"No, should I?"

"Yes! He's acting exactly how you have for the last 4 years." Peter replied.

"You mean I was that love struck?"

"Yep." Peter said.

"Really?"

"Yes." Remus agreed.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Peter and Remus both shouted.

"Okay, okay! What do we do?"

"Well we have to get Mary to like him. It's the only thing that worked for you." Remus said logically.

"Okay and how do we do that?"

"I don't know, ask Lily." Peter replied.

--

"Lily?"

"Uh huh."

"Does Mary like Sirius?" James blurted out before he could stop himself.

"What?!" Lily said in surprise, turning around on the couch she was sitting on to look at him. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because... Sirius has gone into an 'I am off with the fairies dreaming about Mary' stage. And the only way to snap him out of it is to get Mary and him together." James replied.

"And how do you know this?" Lily asked raising an eyebrow.

"Because apparently, well according to Remus and Peter, that's exactly how I was for the last 4 years until today."

"4 years? That's how long you liked me for?"

"Well I liked you for 2 years and loved you for the other 2."

"You love me?" Lily asked looking at him with suprise and pure happiness.

"Yea, I just didn't know how to tell you and you seemed to hate me."

"I'm sorry. Really sorry. I think I love you to James. I thought it was hate, but I think I actually crossed that small line between love and hate a long time ago, I just didn't have the courage to admit, and sometimes you were just so insufferable and annoying I felt like running into a wall!" Lily said laughing at the end. James joined her.

"Anyway how do we get Mary and Sirius together?"

"I know this game, it's a muggle game, it's called Truth or Dare."

--

"Everyone lets play a game! Truth or Dare!" James shouted running into the lounge room after dinner, where everyone was sitting.

"What's that?" Sirius asked looking at James.

"It's a game where someone asks someone else truth or dare, and after they pick one they ask them a question, which they have to answer truthfully if it's truth. Or dare them to do something if they pick dare. And if we don't think your answer was true in truth or you refuse to do the dare I get to punish you. With ice, lots of ice." Lily finished, grinning evilly.

"Let's Play!" Sirius shouted jumping up and sitting on the floor with everyone else to form a circle.

--

"Sirius, Truth or Dare?" James asked.

_Sirius weighed the options in his head. Truth they might make me admit I like Mary and I can't do that so that leaves dare. Nothing will be worse than admitting my feelings for Mary._

"Dare." Was his reply.

"Okay, I dare you to admit your true feelings for Mary," Mary blushed crimson and looked at the ground nervously twisting her hands. Sirius stared at his best mate in shock.

_How could he do something like this to him? He was Sirius Black, he shouldn't be embarrased but doing this was going to embarrass him. Afterall he had never felt this way about anyone before._

"There's no way to get out of this, is there?" Sirius asked, crossing his fingers.

"Nope, unless you want ice in your clothes, your food, your bed, your wardrobe-" Lily replied smilling cheekly.

"Okay, I get it. Mary, I really, really like you. I've never felt this way about anyone before and I want you to be my girlfriend although I completely understand if you don't want to, I mean you probably don't even like m-" Sirius stopped talking abruptly as Mary threw herself at Sirius and started kissing him quite passionatly.


	14. More Interesting Conversations

"I think we should go now." James said, slowly backing out of the room.

"I couldn't agree more." Remus agreed and Lily, Peter, James and Remus left Mary and Sirius alone to make out and continued their game in another room.

"So Remus, Truth or Dare?" Lily asked looking Remus in the eye.

"Well i've always had a weakness when it comes to dares, so I'm going to have to pick truth." Remus replied.

"Truth it is. Anwer this, what is your deepest, darkest secret?"

"Should we tell her?" James asked looking at Remus.

Remus hesitated, a sceptical look on his face. "She deserves to know." Peter said

"Know what?" Lily asked looking between James, Remus and Peter.

"Well..." Started Remus, "I'm sorry, I, I... I don't think I can tell you." Lily looked at him angrily.

"You can't expect me to just let it go? Why won't you tell me? Why the hell did you bring it up if your not going to tell me? Why are you being so insufferable?"

"I just can't, I'm sorry, I'm not ready to tell you," Remus said looking at Lily, "Are you going to hurt me with ice now?"

"I don't care. Do what you like, it doesn't concern me, apparantly," Lily said angrily, getting up and storming out of the room.

"Why the hell didn't you tell her?" James asked bewildered.

"I can't. Lily's really nice and fun and everything but what would happen if she was angry at me and used it against me. I'd have to leave Hogwarts." Remus replied.

"That's how lowly you think of Lily? She would never do something like that. I can't belive you would think that!" James said also storming out of the room.

"Well, that went well." Peter said jokingly.

"Leave me alone." Remus said leaving the room.

"Great, everyone hates each other. This is going to be a fun week." Peter said sarcastically, standing up and leaving the room.

--

Mary and Sirius broke apart after kissing passionatly non stop for 5 minutes. "Where is everyone?" Mary asked, standing up.

"I don't know. I think they left."

"You don't say."

James chose that moment to storm in.

"What is wrong with everyone?" James cried, throwing his hands up in frustration.

"I don't know, why do you want to know?" Sirius asked looking confused. James looked at hm annoyedly.

"Moony is being so self centered!" James finished.

"You know, I'll leave you two to have some guy to guy time, bye!" Mary jumped up and ran out of the room leaving an awkward silence.

"Prongs, what happened?"

"Well we were continuing truth or dare and Lily asked Remus what his deepest darkest secret was and Remus was about to tell her and then he chickened out and after Lily stormed out he said it was because he thinks Lily might use his secret against him if she had a fight with him." James finished looking angry.

'Wait a second, this is Lily we're talking about, the one that has nothing but is amazingly loyal..."

"Exactly!" he confirmed, looking triumphant. "I finally score a date with Lily, and Remus might have ruined everything!"

"James, talking to me isn't going to fix anything, you have to solve this problem by talking heart to heart with Remus."

"When the hell did you get so deep and meaningfull?"

"Well being in a serious and passionate realationship does this to some people."

"Padfoot, it hasn't even been an hour."

"Yeah well my soul has been stretched to it's artistic limits."

"Right.. I'm going to talk to Remus." James said leaving the room.

--

Lily re-read the letter that she had hidden in the bottom of her trunk.

_Lily,_

_Mum and Dad are dead. They died in a car crash on Monday. I recieved and sold the house and most of the furniture except for yours which I burned. We each get 2.5 million dollars yours is in a bank account in the family bank. I am marrying Vernon Dursley in 3 weeks. I do not want you to be there nor do i want to speak to you ever again._

_Petunia._

Did Petunia even care? She sounded so heartless and cold. What had happened to the close relationship that her and Tuney had? She wanted her back. She wanted her parents back. And Tuney, she was as good as dead, wasn't she?

Lily couldn't hold it back anymore, her body shaking violently and tears running down her face as she cried silently. She had lost everything, she didn't have a family and her supposed friends had been keeping her in the dark about something that was obviously highly important. She couldn't keep doing this, pretending everything was okay when she was struggling to act normally. She walked into her bathroom and splashed her face with water, looking at her reflection, staring back at her was a perfectly normal, attractive looking 17 year old teenager. It couldn't have been further from the truth, James' parent's were nice enough but they weren't her family, never would be. She looked at he reflection again and a tear slid down her cheek, Lily sat down on the cold tiled floor and put her head in her hands.

--

Mary was standing outside Lily's door knocking, knocking again, she silently turned the handle and stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. There was no one in the room but she could hear noises coming from the bathroom.

"Lily? Are you okay?" Mary said cautiously whilst knocking on the door. No Answer. "Lily I know you're in there."

"I'm fine! Just leave me alone!" she said, straining to keep the truth from her voice. But Mary had known her for too long to not know that this was the voice she put on when she wanted to cover up the fact that she was upset.

"Lily, I'm coming in," Mary said opening the door and stepping into the bathroom, she took one look at Lily sitting on the floor "Oh, Lily," she sighed, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" she insisted, tears streaming down her face.

Mary looked sceptically at Lily, "You know you can tell me anything Lily. I won't tell anyone."

"A don't have _anyone _like you guys do," she hesitated, not sure if she should continue. "I have no parents, no sister. I'm all alone. What's going to happenwhen I leave school?" she asked desperately.

"Oh Lily! You're our family now! You're welcome to stay at any of our houses, I know James would be happy to have you anytime."

"Oh really. What kindof family relationship would that be? Everyone keeps secrets from me!"

"What? What do you mean?" she asked curiously, momentarily forgetting to be as comforting aspossible.

"Remus has been keeping things from me, from both of us."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Mary asked.

"Remus refused to tell me his deepest, darkest secret, because he obviously thinks we're not good enough friends," Lily exaggerated.

"Oh really, well I'm going to give him a piece of my mind! I'm going to go stick his wand up his-"

"MARY! As much as I hate him at the moment that is really rude, besides it obviously important if he doesn't want to tell us."

"Lily, you're such a push over! Get a grip! Besides it's probably not bad or scary or anything, his secret's probably just embarrassing!"

"Yeah, sure." Lily said standing up an walking back into her bedroom.

"Lily, you've got to talk to Remus," Mary said, following her.

"OK, fine," Lily said standing up and walking out of the room.

--

"What, the, hell."

"Erm, excuse me?"

"Why the hell didn't you tell her?"

"Well, I couldn't, you know?"

"Why not?"

"You've only been together for a little while, what if it all fell apart?"

"And the real reason is?"

"That is the reason!"

"Moony, why won't you tell me the real reason?"

"Fine, what if, what if Lily's afraid of me? What if she's disgusted by me? What if she never talked to me again because she thought I was a freak?"

"Mate, I'm pretty sure she won't think that way about you."

"How can you be sure? How can you be absolutly positive that she won't think I'm a freak?" Remus asked.

"Why would I think that?" Lily asked, standing in the doorway and looking very uncomfortable.

"Tell her Remus."

"..."

"MOONY, TELL HER!"

"NO!"

"TELL ME WHAT!? No, I'm sorry Remus, you don't have to tell me. Whatevr it is it's obviously really embarrassing.

James glared at Remus.

"No James, it's all right, really. I mean, even I have a secret."

James looked at her curiosly, but Remus merely smiled, "I really am sorry Lily. One day you'll know"


	15. The date

"Mary..."

"Yes, James?" Mary replied sitting on her bed and filing her nails.

"Well, I need more help."

"More? I thought I gave you enough when we were planning how to get you and Lily together?"

"Please Mary!" James pleaded on his knees. "You are the goddess of help when it comes to Lily and I need some advice, desperately!"

"I guess I could give you some advice, what for?" Mary asked looking at James with a raised eyebrow.

"Ok, I need help on how to have a perfect date with Lily." James replied.

"I think I can work something out." Mary decided.

* * *

"Lily!" James cried running into the room.

"Uh huh," Lily replied not looking up from her book.

"Come with me, I have to show you something." He said tugging her arm.

"What?" Lily asked.

"I can't tell you but you have to put this blind fold on."

"A blind fold? Why?"

"It's a secret, just put it on."

"Okay," Lily replied putting it on.

"Now come on!" James shouted, giddy with excitement.

"I can't see you, you idiot."

"Oh. Right. I'll guide you. And smash you into a tree! Mwa ha ha!" James replied.

"James, you smash me into a tree and I'll strap you into a car that happens to be going full speed towards a limestone wall covered in spikes."

"What's a car?"

"Never mind."

"Ok," James said gently taking Lily's hand in his and helping her out of the room.

* * *

"James... Can I take the blind fold off?" Lily said after the dizziness of side along apparation had dissapeared.

"Oh, yeah, sure." James said grabbing his wand and vanishing the blind fold.

"You know, I could have just taken it off."

"Yeah, but doing magic is funner."

"Funner?"

"More fun, whatever. Forget grammar, I'm trying to enjoy our date."

"Date?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. We're on a date," James said.

"Did I have any say in this," Lily asked jokingly.

"Nope, none what-so-ever."

"OK, so I guess that means you'll be choosing where we go and what we do?"

"I hadn't thought of that," admitted James.

"Oh, stop looking so worried! I'll choose."

"So, I suppose you'll want to go shopping?" asked James, bracing himself for an answer.

"James! You aren't being very romantic!" said Lily, enjoying her "date" already. "Asking me to go shopping is like asking you to go hang out in a Quidditch store."

"Can we?" James said, a hopeful glint in his eye.

"Definately not!" Lily replied dragging away from the Quidditch store that was near them. "What is there actually to do at Diagon Alley?" Lily asked.

"Well, we can get some ice-cream?" James asked.

"Sure!" Lily said grabbing his hand and dragging him along to the ice-cream store.

"One chocolate icrecream with two scoops and white, milk and dark choc chips with chocolate sace on top please, also with a chocolate coated flake, and a..." James said to the ice-cream man, looking at Lily questioningly.

"Strawberry thanks," she said, laughing at James.

Lily had a feeling that her "date" was going to go just fine.

**A/N I won't be able to update for about three weeks, but I might be able to fit another chapter in before Friday.**


	16. Peter's Gay

Lily bounced down the stairs, in a particulary good mood So good, in fact, that all queries about Remus' secret were eliminated from her head. She made herself a cup of tea and sat down. She warmed her fingers on the mug, and watch the steam curl into different shapes and patterns. She had made herself at home in the Potter's house, and was content. Well, as content as someone whoose parents have just passed away can get. The thought brought a tear to her eye, so she stopped thinking about it.

She thought her feeling so happy probably had something to do with the fact that this house had everything she could probably ever want, plus more.

Then she thought aagain. Maybe it wasn't the fantastic facilities, or the beautiful archtecture. She thought about the hospitality, and the kindness of James' parents. She thought of the fantastic support that her best friend Mary had given her. The jokes and comments from Sirius that made her sides split. The interesting and practical thoughts of Remus. The loyalty Peter had shown for the gang. And James. Her James. She imagined the smooth curve of his cheek. She yearned to feel his face. To smell his breath. She thought about him.

Then she realised her tea was getting cold, so she drank it.

She squinted into the distance, "Owls? JAMES! JAMES, MARY, SIRIUS, REMUS, PETER!"

"What is it?" asked Mary sleepily, who'd only been a couple of rooms away.

"The owls are here!"

Lily ran up the stairs and into the bedrooms. She ran up to to Sirius' room and banged on the door.

"Sirius, the owls are here!"

"Do you think I care?" came a muffled voice behind the door.

"Wake Peter up aswell!"

"No!"

Lily ran to James room, which happened to be next to Sirius' room. She found that the door was unlocked, so she pushed it open.

"Hey Lily," James said, showing off his incredibly well-developed muscles as he yawned and stetched his arms up above his head, "What are you doing here?"

Lily didn't answer. She didn't hear him either. Thing only thing Lily actually registered was the fact that James, was in fact, not wearing anything but a pair of boxers.

"I - er - I - I - um - we - owls - you - downstairs. I'll see you downstairs!" Lily stuttered, sprinting down the stairs bursting into the kitchen bright red as everyone turned to stare at her. Jame followed a minute later wearing a t-shirt and jeans.

Remus' eyes were alight, despite the fact that he had only just waken up. Sirius, James and Peter, however, made no changes to their facial expressions, not even to pretend they were excited.

Sirius glanced once at the little barn owl that had just flown through the window and landed on the table. The letter was tied to it's leg at an awkward angle.

"Oh, great. Well, I'd better be going," he yawned.

"Where to?" asked Mary.

"Back to bed. duh," said Sirius.

"Nope," Lily said blocking the doorway. "You are going to open and read that letter and then you can go to bed."

"Fine!" Sirius said sitting back down and taking the letter from the owl. All the others grabbed their letters.

"Yes!" Lily cried jumping up and down. "I'm Head Girl!"

"Big Surprise," James said looking at Lily, a smile tugging at his lips. "I am," James said tipping his letter out, "Quidditch Captain and..."

"What?" Lily asked looking at him as he sat frozen staring at a second badge. "James, What?"

"I'm Head Boy." James said in a small voice. Lily noticed Remus looked just the smallest bit hurt as he tried to hide his feelings with mock shock.

"But James, How? I mean, you're not even a prefect." Lily said looking at him.

"Probably because of last year, when Jamse saved Severus from being eaten by-" Sirius started to say, unaware the Mary and Lily were in the room.

"Shut Up!" Remus said looking at Sirius murderously.

"Sorry." Sirius said looking worried.

"James, when did you save Severus' life?"

"Er, I, haha! Sirius was kidding! Get it?" James said, bracing himself.

"I'm really sorry Lily, it's part of the secret," said Remus sadly

"When does this secret end?" Lily cried, "I mean if you're not going to share it with us then stop mentioning it."

"Ok," Remus replied, "Now come on guys hurry up and get ready and then we can go to Diagon Alley." As everyone got up and started to leave the kitchen, James caught Lily's eye and winked,

"Diagon Alley, again."

* * *

"Wow, these school books look pretty advanced," fretted Peter who was reading the book list along with the others.

"Duh, it's seventh grade. What did you expect?" asked James, looking down at his own list.

"Well, I thought they'd give us a break and let us enjoy our last year." Peter suggesting that his assumption was the most natural thing in the word. Sirius laughed loudly and attracted a few stares from passerby's.

"Unfortunately, we have Newt's and I am taking all the advanced subjects and have an awful amount of textbooks that I need to buy," said Remus.

"Same," Lily replied and James nodded as well. The group spit up with Remus, Lily and James getting all their books and Mary, Peter and Sirius getting theirs.

* * *

After about an hour the group met up at the Leaky Cauldron and ordered lunch, they were all feeling ravenous after dragging around heavy book bags for quite a while.

"So, we go back to school on Friday," James said, trying to make conversation.

"What!" Sirius said looking ahgast, "You mean I only have four days left of the holidays to hang around with you guys and make out with my girlfriend," He said gesturing to a bright red Mary, "before the teachers ruin our lives with homework?" Sirius cried.

"Yes Padfoot, you only have four days left." Remus said looking at him, blatant amusement, painted on his face.

"You're an idiot Moony, always making school seem like fun, you need a girlfriend. I mean, seriously, James and I have perfect lives with our wonderful babes," Siris ducked as Lily hit him on the head with a book, "and Peter, well Peter's gay,"

"I AM NOT!" Peter said throwing a book at Sirius who winced as it came in contact with his shoulder.

"I was kidding! I promise! Anyway Remus you're a boring person, you're a boring, boring, boring, boring person!" Sirius finished grinning hapily.

"Thanks for that," Remus replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the fact that James was high fiving Padfoot and saying that that had been a brilliant speech, Peter was laughing uncontrollably and Mary and Lily looked like they were trying as hard as they could not to start laughing. "Now what do you idiots think about getting some food?"

"Yes!" Sirius shouted, licking his lips and signalling the waitress over, "We would like 6 burgers, four with a side serving of fries for us strong, handsome and sexy males and two with side serves of salad for the ladies, oh, and six butterbeers." Sirius said.

"Sexy?" Mary asked, raising an eyebrow at Sirius after the waitress had left.

"Or you could say, attractive, smoking, hot, or even delicious." Sirius finished licking his lips suggestively, Mary mimed throwing up.

"That doesn't describe you, I think more along the lines or dumb, stupid, insufferable, wait that's James, idiotic, maniacal and maybe crazy." Lily chimed in listing the descritions of Sirius.

"I'm insufferable?" James asked.

"Always have been, it's one of the reasons I love you." Lily replied, kissing James, hard.

"Ew, mushy and romantic and disgusting PG 13+ scenes happening in front of me! It burns!" Peter wailed.

"I told you he was gay." Sirius jerked his finger at Peter whilst laughing with Mary and Remus.

"I'm not! Leave me alone!" Peter cried.

"Fine," Sirius said and started digging into his burger, seeing as their meals had just appeared on the tables.

Suddenly. Screams. Everywhere. Where had her friends gone, she couldn't find them anywhere.

"GUYS?!" she called over the masses of screaming people. Still nothing. What had happened? One minute they were sitting their drinking their butterbeer, the next they were sprawled on the floor, with people trampling them, all running away. What were they scared of? Lily had a hunch, but she dreaded what she thought was true.

"Avada Kedavra!" shouted a man dressed in a black cloak. Lily knew it. What she thought was right. She had been reading about the occasional attack, but it was one of thoses things that you knew was going on, but never thought it would happen to you. And it was happening, right in front of her, and she was unable to prevent it.


	17. An Attack and Voldemort

There was chaos, everywhere, people screaming and running and Lily was all alone. She couldn't see any of her friends, prehaps they had made it out the door, but it was too late for Lily, the doorway had collapsed after being hit by a jinx and the other doorway was surrounded by masked figures in long cloaks. Death Eaters. Lily had two options, fight or die.

"_Stupefy!_" she cried, stunning a Death Eater that was pointing their wand at a small girl. Two more Death Eaters turned to face her.

"_Crucio!_" A jet of red light darted towards Lily, she shimmied to the side barely managing to avoid it, "_Serpensortia!_" A long black snake flew out of the Death Eaters wand and started to make its way towards her, suddenly it reared up, made a snapping motion and was flying towards her.

"_Protego!_" Lily shouted, a shield forming around her which the snake hit and presently exploded. Suddenly out of nowhere James appeared. "Where the _hell _have you been?!" Lily screamed whilst throwing curses and jinx at random Death eaters and jumping out of the way of a flash of yellow light.

"Sorry! We all made it outside and thought you were with us when Remus realised you weren't, I apparated back straight away, and don't worry, the ministries on the way." James said almost getting hit by a jinx as he turned to glance at Lily.

"Don't worry! The ministry won't be here for at least 10 minutes, how can I not worry, besides we can't just apparate out theirs people in here that need our help!" Lily finished gesturing at three little girls huddled under one of the tables.

"Ok, I'll get them out of here." James replied ducking and running across the room. He vanished and re-appeared three times and was about to run back to Lily when he was blocked by a wall of falling rocks.

"JAMES!" Lily cried, making to run over to him but stopped at the last minute as she was grabbed from behind.

"Now what would a pretty thing like you be doing fighting here?" A leering voice asked.

"Get lost!" Lily screamed and assuming that the person holding her was a male she lashed out with her foot and kicked them in the groin. A groan of pain was heard as the man sunk to the ground, "And stay away from me! _Stupefy!_" The man slumped forward and didn't move. Standing up again she started fling curses at any Death Eater that she could see.

"_Stupefy! Impedimenta! Serpensortia! Incarcerous! Levicorpus! Reducto!_" Lily Screamed turning around and around a grim look of satisfaction flittered across her face as Death Eaters crumpled or were hoisted into the air. Suddenly she realised she was staring at someone that wasn't wearing a mask and who's face and body looked changed for the worse.

"You dare to challenge Lord Voldemort and his followers?" The man said in a snake like voice. Lily froze. "Yes, you should be afraid, very afraid." Suddenly without Lily able to summon a protective shield, Lord Voldemort;s wand was out a pointing towards her. "_Crucio!_" It was unimaginable pain, Lily was thrown back and she hit the floor with the sound of a bone breaking. She was sweating all over, Lily curled herself into a ball as another wave of intense pain hit her full on.

"Jam-" It was barely a whisper and before she could even finish she was overcome by a wave of nausea and Lily passed out. Suddenly there was a burst of light and she was covered by a shield, James had managed to get past the other death eaters and they were being dueled by aurors that had just arrived.

"Don't ever hurt her again!" James shouted, dodging, weaving and flinging curses at Voldemort.

"Young, Love. How disgusting." Voldemort replied sneering he flung one last curse at James and apparated away, all the conscious death eaters followed suit. The Leacky Cauldron was quite and James, unable to help himself passed out to.

The rest of the Marauders ran in. They had been held off by the Aurors despite Sirius's furious shouting to let them in to help their friends. It had all been so confusing Remus could have sworn that Lily was beside them but then she wasn't, and then James was gone too, and then reappearing and disappearing 3 times bring small children with him, and then he didn't come back.. By the time they had got away and realised that Lily wasn't with them, they couldn't get in, their friend were trapped. James managed to think of apparating but the others didn't have their licences and didn't want to risk splinching themselves.

The Leaky Caldren was an absolute mess. Tables were smashed, people were lying on the ground and groaning and others were trying to find their family or friends. Remus even thought he saw someone, that looked, that looked dead. He shuddered. He started sweating, what if James and Lily were two of the bodies lying under the rubble.  
Suddenly out of the corner of his eye he saw a glowing sphere, rushing towards it he realised that Lily was indeed in it, unconscious and deathly deathly pale. James was next to her, unconscious as well but looking much better compared to Lily.

"Guys, we have to get Lily to St Mungo's, now!" Remus scooped up Lily and Sirius and Peter managed to lift up James, Mary returned a few seconds later holding a faintly glowing portkey.

"Quick!" Mary cried, they all managed to grab hold of the portkey and they dissapeared from the room.

**A/N I will be going away for 3 weeks and therefore won't update till July 28th or maybe a few days earlier.**


	18. St Mungos

Mary, Remus, Sirius and Peter, holding Lily and James, appeared in the reception of St Mungo's in a tangle of bodies

Mary, Remus, Sirius and Peter, holding Lily and James, appeared in the reception of St Mungo's in a tangle of bodies. Witches and Wizards that were waiting to be examined watched the newcomers curiously. Remus, hurriedly yet gently managed to scoop Lily up into his arms and practically ran to the desk where the receptionist sat.

"She needs to be examined now!" Remus said. The receptionist, seeing the state of Lily, quickly sent a trainee healer to fetch a healer.

"What about that one?" She asked glancing at the still unconscious James.

"We know he's unconscious too, but at the moment she looks quite a bit worse." Remus replied. The receptionist beckoned another trainee forward and after reciting her message she sent him scurrying off.

"I'll arrange beds for both of them, after all that one," she gestured towards James, "has quite a few nasty cuts that may become infected." As she finished speaking two healers came hurrying out of the double doors that led towards all the rooms, they took one look at Lily and James and set to work lifting them both onto stretchers and pushing them through the double doors, Remus started to follow but one of the healers gave him a stern look that clearly said, 'Not now' and Remus walked over to where Sirius, Mary and Peter had sat down.

The next few hours passed in a blur of other healers and patients coming and going through the double doors at the end of the waiting room. It was agonising pain having to wait until a healer came and told them how Lily and James were. For the first hour of waiting, every time a healer came out the double doors Remus' hopes would go up as he thought that this would be the one that would tell them how they were but after two hours of waiting, Remus gave up hoping and just paced the waiting area to pass the time. Peter was constantly fidgeting, Mary looked like she was struggling not to cry, and Sirius was holding Mary in his arms and staring into space with a distant look in his eyes when he suddenly jumped up.

"James' parents! They don't know! Their probably really worried, it's Six O'clock!" He ran off to one of the fireplaces to inform Mr and Mrs Potter.

A few minutes later he returned with James' parents in tow, both looking as worried as the Peter, Remus and Mary.

"What happened? Where is he? How is he going? Can we see him? I want to-" Mrs Potter babbled before breaking down into tears.

"Where is he?" asked Mr Potter, clearly worried and concerned.

"He's with the healers, along with Lily, who's much worse than he is."

"I forgot about Lily, I'm a terrible person!" Mrs Potter said, her sobs were gradually growing more frequent.

"It'll be okay," Mr Potter assured Mrs Potter. A healer came emerged from the double doors and made they're way over to them.

"Hello, Mr and Mrs Potter I presume? And are you his friends?" The healer pulled off her gloves as she shook Mr Potter's hand.

""Yeah," Remus replied. "Can we go and see them?"

"I understand that you want to see Mr Potter and Miss Evans?" The healer asked.

"Yeah, and soon." Sirius spoke up.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible for at least another half an hour if not longer."

"Why?" Mr Potter curiously asked.

"Because although Mr Potter's injuries aren't very intensive, Miss Evans' injuries are in fact quite horrific. A team of highly qualified healers are at this very moment trying to work out what happened and how to help her, therefore Mr Potter, for we have examined him already, is only unconscious due to exhaustion, and we are therefore waiting for him to wake up, which may take a while, depending on how quickly the energy regenerating potions take effect."

"But if he's only unconscious, why can't we see him?" Mrs Potter asked.

"It's because for him to be properly energized he needs to sleep as well, and with a crowd of people that won't be very easy."

"And what about Lily, when will we be able to see her?" Mary asked, clearly very stressed.

"As soon as we figure out or get a vague idea of what has happened to her we will be able to give her the correct medical attention that she requires."

"But how long will that take?" Mary asked exasperatedly.

"Maybe a few minutes, maybe the rest of the day. We can't help her properly until we know what happened. Before I get back, do any of you know what actually happened to Mr Potter and Miss Evans?"

"Sort of, I guess. They were fighting Death Eaters and maybe even You-Know-Who, we weren't actually with them when they were hurt." Sirius offered.

"Death Eaters? How?" The healer asked.

"They invaded the Leaky Cauldron."

"Thank-you, that information may be useful." The healer bid farewell and disappeared back through the double doors and Mr and Mrs Potter, Sirius, Peter, Mary and Remus sat back down to wait, yet none of the noted the pink clad figure that had been taking notes and eavesdropping on the conversation the entire time.


	19. A Recounted Tale

James awoke to a musty smell in a room he did not recognise. As his eyes swam into focus, the first thought that popped into his mind was Lily_, Where was she, and how had he gotten to where he currently was?_ The room was full of healers all grouped around a bed in the corner. James tried to speak but his throat was far to dry and no words came out. He sat up and immediately a searing pain cut through his head. Noticing a red button on the mall next to his head he slowly managed to lift his arm and press it. A soft beeping filled the air. One of the healers heard, turned around and after noticing that James was awake, hurried over and started kindly explaining where he was.

"Hello Mr Potter" she said after glancing at his file. "It appears that you have collapsed of exhaustion and have been asleep for 4 hours, your friends brought you in here earlier. Please, try not to move too much because you clearly need to rest."

"What about Lily? Where is she?" James asked looking clearly panicked.

"Miss Evans? Over there, in that bed." The healer gestured towards the bed that was surrounded by healers."

"What's wrong with her?" James asked straining his eyes to try and get a better look.

"That's the problem, we don't actually know what spells were used against her, and so we are unable to help her properly."

"It was the Cruciatus Curse, twice. Voldemort cast it." James seemed to be struggling to speak.

"What? This changes absolutely everything! If you need anything just press the red button and someone will come, now try to rest." The healer hurried back to Lily's bed and after hurriedly muttering under her breath to the healer in charge she hurried out of the room.

Remus, Mary, Sirius and the Potters were flipping boredly through the outdated magazines in the waiting room and drinking the coffee that Mr Potter had kindly purchased for them all. When the healer walked through the doors towards them they looked up hopefully seeing as it had been over two hours since they had been informed of James and Lily's conditions.

"I am pleased to inform you that Mr Potter has woken and will make a full recovery. Miss Evans however is although not yet as well as we would like her to be at this point is going to make a full recovery."

Remus, Peter, Mary, Mr and Mrs Potter all heaved a huge sigh of relief.

"You may go and visit Mr Potter but you have only ten minutes as he needs his rest. He should be able to return home tonight but make sure that he does not exert himself and…" The rest of her sentence was lost as everyone rushed into the ward to visit James.

"Oh my! Poor James," sobbed Mrs Potter into Mr Potter's shoulder.

"Are you all right?" asked Mr Potter, frantic panic, clear in his eyes.

"JAMES SAY SOMETHING!" shrieked Sirius.

"I'm all right! I just wanted to see how long i could go with out talking, I haven't done my quieting excercises in over a month!!" Remus shook his head.

"This is not the time to be quiet, James." Remus said, "Everyone needs to know what happened." As he spoke a women in pink slid up to the closed door and subtly leaned her ear against it, straining to hear the conversation taking place inside the room between the five teenagers and two adults.

"Well, basically we all managed to get out but Lily didn't: when I went back she said we couldn't leave because there were people that needed our help,"

"The three girls you apparated out." Remus comprehended.

"Yeah and then I wentto run back and help her but the roof collapsed and we were cut off; after stunning about 5 Death Eaters I managed to get around the rocks and back to Lily; she had done some brilliant spell work; I mean there were over 10 Death Eaters all stunnedor cursed to oblivion; I was about 10 metres away when this other cloaked figue that wore no mask came up behind her," explained James. "I tried to get to her faster but it was like everything suddenly went in slow motion; I wanted to get to her ASAP but I just wasn't running fast enough; as I was running he cast the Cruciatus Curse, twice." James buried his head in his hands and Mary and Mrs Potter both gasped, Mrs Potter leaning into Mr Potters arms and Mary clung to Sirius whilst he put his arm aroung her and interlocked their hands. "I got there as fast as I could but she'd already fainted; I didn't have time to help her I had to FIGHT THE BASTARD!" James finished his voicing vaising to a shout, one of the healers surrounding Lily's bed turned and gave James an angry glare.

"Do you know who it was, the person that cast the Cruciatus Curse?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah. It was Voldemort." James replied a hard glint in his eye. Peter gasped.

"Say, You-Know-Who!"

"I don't particually care anymore. I just want Voldemort to die and stop harming innocent people, like Lily," James finished passionately. The pink clad figure had heard enough and left her position from outside the room and went back to the waiting room. Two minutes later a healer called excitedly from around Lily's bed.

"She's waking up!"


	20. Meeting

Lily opened her eyes slowly, blurred figures surrounded her and she started to lash out.

"Let me go!" She croaked, her throat dry and burning. "Please, don't hurt me! Please, please, please..." Lily drifted into unconsciousness again. The healer tried to revive her as Mary came running over, one of the healers puled her back but Mary struggled.

"Please let me see her! She's my best friend, just let me through!" Mary yanked her arms out of the healers and sprinted towards Lily's bed, "Lils! Can you hear me? Please Lils, talk to me!" Mary clutched Lily's arm and whilst three healers tried to pull her away she eventually let go and stepped back. Tears glistened in the corner of her eyes and a diamond like droplet slid down her cheek. Sirius came up behind her and gently prised her hand away from Lily's.

"Shhh," he murmered, "She's going to be alright, I promise." Mary turned to stare at him,

"How can you be sure? How can you be absolutely positive? How can you promise me something that you can't know you can keep?" Her voice, starting as a whisper grew louder and louder and by the time she had finished she was practically pleading with her. Sirius hugged her tighter,

"I just do know OK? Lily's strong, she will make it," Sirius seemed to think that by reassuring Mary, he was reassuring himself.

A eyelid flickered. A finger twitched. Lily stirred.

"SHE'S ALIVE! SHE'S ALIVE! SHE'S ALIVE!" Mary shrieked.

"Ssssssssh! Calm down Mary!" Sirius continued to hug Mary, her hysterical screaming aside. Suddenly, Mr Potter, who had left to get some coffee, came back in holding the _Prophet _he handed it to James and said,

"I think you should see this."

**A/N Ok so I know this is a short chapter, in fact it's only a preview of the coming chapter, it's just that I am a bit stuck for how to write this chapter but rest assured it should be completed by the end of the week. Any way, I will soon be changing my pen name to Ananka Fishbein and I just thought that all of you fellow readers might want to know. **

**P.S Can we try to hit the 70 reviews mark? Please? Reviews make me sooooo happy!**


	21. A Mystery

**Dislaimer: We haven't done one of these in ages! But I can assure you that I am not J.K.Rowling. Or am I? Dun, dun, dun. No, I'm seriously not. Or am I? Dun, dun, dun. (etc)**

* * *

_YOU-KNOW-WHO STRIKES AGAIN! _

_You-Know-Who strikes again, this time at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley! I, Rita Skeeter, and my wonderful sources have managed to hear a recount of what actually happened! _

_4 days before September the 1st, 6 Seven Years at Hogwarts School of Witch Craft and Wizardry, were out shopping for school supplies, whilst eating lunch were suddenly in the midst of a fierce battle that had suddenly occured, whilst 5 of the teenagers managed to Apparate, the sixth new that although she should really have gotten away stayed to help others and become a hero, but heroic actions don't come without a price, this teenager, Lilian Evans, Head girl this year of Hogwarts, stayed and apparently fought You-Know-Who face to face!! Lilian's boyfriend James Potter, coincidently Head Boy of Hogwarts, came back to help her, like a knight saving his damsel in distress, but after Apparating some young innocent citizens was trapped by a rockfall and by the time he reached her, Lilian had already been cursed twice with the Cruciatus Curse and became unconcious. James fougt bravely but, seeing as no one can defeat You-Know-Who, also became unconscious and You-Know-Who got away once more. _

_James Potter, woke up only a few hours after the ordeal, yet Lilian Evans has still not regained consciousness, hopefully it isn't too late and there is still a chance of recovery. But in order to help out James Potter, Lilian Evans, and their friends - Mary McDonald, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Petigrew - Madame Malkin has donated all of the Seventh Years three sets of brand new robes, Flourish and Blots have donated brand new schoolbooks to replace those lost in the battle and the Apocathery has donated all the nescasary potions ingredients for the students. Added bonus' were given to Lilian Evans and James Potter for actually fighting and elping to disarm, stun and capture multiple death eaters, James recieved a new racing broom from Quality Quiddich Suplies and Lilian recieved an Snowy Owl from Magical Menagerie. Lilian Evans and James Potter may go down in history as some of the youngest people to fight against You-Know-Who._

_This is Rita Skeeter, recording the action first hand for the Daily Prophet._

* * *

James looked up from the paper in surprise, and wordlessly handed it to Remus who read it aloud for the rest of them to hear.

"Rita Skeeter?" Mary asked, frowning slightly, "She only graduated a couple of years ago. Ravenclaw."

"LOOKS LIKE SHE MADE THE BIG TIME COPYING OUR FIGHT, DIDN'T SHE!" roared Sirius.

"Sirius, she didn't copy the fight, she reporting it," explained Remus.

"Same thing," mumbled Sirius.

All eight of them, Mrs and Mr Potter, Peter, Sirius, Remus, James, Mary and a very unstable Lily, had just apparated back to the Potter Masion, and were sitting at the kitchen table reading the Daily Prophet.

"Guys, you're going to give Lily a headache," James said as his slight smug expression changed to one of concern.

Peter sniggered as James stroked Lil's hair, but James merely frowned at him and he stopped right away. It often awed James how easily Peter could be persuaded, but he pushed that thought to the back of his head. It would never be needed. They were friends and that's all that mattered. He turned his attention back to other more recent and more important events.

"So, how did she find out? What happened, I mean. Someone must of have told her, because she sure as hell wasn't there."

"And I doubt any of the Death Eaters told her," added Remus.

"Well, she could have been there, what does she look like?" asked Lily.

"Er, I dunno. I think she's blonde. Hang on, that's right, she's got short, blonde, bouncy hair," recalled Mary.

"How do you know?" asked Sirius frowning slightly.

"Er, I've seen her," replied Mary.

"No, whether her hair is boncy or not. I mean, have you actually bounced it? Or are you just assuming that it's bouncy because it's curly? That's quite an assumption to make you know. Hang on, how do you even bounce hair?"

"That's nice Sirius. But no, she wasn't there, I would have remembered," said James, furrowing her brow. "There were only five or six other people in there."

"Then someone must have told her. But the question is, who would know Rita Skeeter?"

"It could have been anyone of those other people there," said Mary.

"But here it says, repoting the action for you first hand," said Peter, pointing to the bottom of the page.

"How observant of you Peter."

"But here it says she had "wonderful sources" and that she'd been able to hear a recount of the tale," added Peter, pointing to the top.

They sat in silence for awhile before Mrs Potter interrupted, "Well, it's no use worrying about it now. Everyone go pack their trunks. We have to leave for the train in a couple of days!"

"Wow, the holidays went really quickly. But really fast at the same time, you know?" said Peter.

"You know, if I didn't know what you meant, I'd probably be looking at you like you were crazy right now," said Sirius absentmindedly.

* * *

**A/N: Everyone keep those reviews going! (Review or you shall DIE!!) So, is everyone liking what's happening? Any suggestions? Want to talk to me about your deep and emotional feelings? I don't really care what you talk to me about, just review. Please. They make me happy.**


	22. The train

**A/N: Ok, so I know this is short but I realised that I hadn't updated for like, 4 weeks so I have managed to write a small preview of the next chapter. Unfortunately homework and writers block DO NOT mix. And having to do assignments when I could be writing is very annoying. So, soon the rest of this chapter will be up, anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I am not J.K Rowling. The characters are all hers, I am just borrowing them. Although the plot is entirely my own.**

"QUICK, RUN!" shrieked Mrs Potter as the Potter's, Lily, Mary, Sirius, Remus and Peter sprinted through King's Cross train station. It was 10:58 and the were nowhere near platform 9 and three quarters.

"CHARGE!" roared Sirius as the eight of them headed toward the platform, trolleys full and trunks packed.

"Don't worry, we're going to make it," soothed Mr Potter. He didn't entirely believe it, but he was mainly trying to calm down his panicky wife. They all managed to race through the barrier just in time and ran on to the train just as the train doors were closing. Having barely had time to find a carriage and wave, they were all fairly out of breath, before they realised that everybody was staring at them through the glass windows. Lily confidently grabbed the handle of her trunk and started to walk down the length of the train looking for a carriage. They chose the last one, as to avoid the impenetratable stares radiating from all of the other carriages. The scenery was slowly changing from a hustled city to a smaller town, then again to a smaller one. Finally, they managed to cram themselves into one carriage. After stashing all their baggage and trunks into the overhead lockers, one by one, they all collapsed onto the couch. After a few minutes of peaceful relaxation, Lily lifted up her wrist to examine the time on her watch. Jumping to her feet she quickly started to try to pull Remus and James from their seats.

"Remus! James! Hurry up! We have a Heads and Prefect meeting in 3 minutes!" Remus, realizing how important this was, immediately jumped to his feet and started pulling James into a standing position. "Come on, James! This is important!" Finally James reopened his eyes and stood up. Turning to face Sirius he said with a grave voice,

"It is time to face the mighty unknown." Sirius tried to maintain a serious face but started snorting in less than 5 seconds. After another insistent, "COME ON!" from Lily, James allowed himself to be dragged out of the carriage and towards the meeting.

**A/N: Ok, so I am faced with a BIG dilemma. Should I continue with this story until Lily and James' death which would result in lots of massively long chapters or I can finish the story at their graduation and make a sequel. Which do you guys think?**

**P.S There is more of this chapter coming.**

**P.P.S Please review and tell us about any suggestions you have for out story. Just click the greenish, blueish, squarish button at the left hand bottom corner of the screen!**

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	23. A Meeting and an excess of Pumpkin Juice

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately i am not J.K.Rowling**

With barely any time left, a flustered Lily pushed open the door to the carriage that would hold the Prefect meeting. The six Ravenclaw prefects were the only ones in the carriage. One of the Ravenclaw prefects glanced upwards and seeing James, a look of confusion fluttered across her face.

"Why is _he_ here?" She asked raising an eyebrow. James squared his shoulders and looked her directly in the face,

"_I'm _head boy." James replied. The Ravenclaw prefect seemed to ponder this thought in her head for a while before replying.

"I'm Kayla Jaggson, Sixth Year Ravenclaw prefect," James' expression suggested that he didn't really care. Lily gave him a look that clearly said, 'do something'. James reached for her hand and jokingly kissed it. Kayla giggled, whilst Remus looked embarrassed and Lily turned away towards the other Fifth, Sixth and Seventh year prefects from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin that were slowly filing in.

"Hasn't James declared his love for you yet?" sniggered an extremely rude Slytherin fifth grader, who had wittnessed the highly embarrassing "James walking along the Gryffindor table" incident.

"Shut up, you little wart," said James bluntly.

"OK, for all those who are new to the delightful world of prefect-ism, the main thing is," interrupted Lily, hoping to break up any fights before they started, "that you keep troublemakers in control, and that you suck up to the teacher."

Everybody looked at Lily with their jaws hanging down from their faces. Never had they heard the goody-goody _Lily Evans _say anything rude or offensive to teachers.

"Er, I'm kidding," she explained, for those too flabbergasted to say anything.

"Anyway," said James trying to break the ice, "mission one is to patrol the corridors for a bit, and just mind that the train ride goes smoothly. That's all that really matters for today. And make sure that nobody's picking on the first years, unless they deserve it," he added as an after thought.

"That's right, we want to make their first day as nice as possible," agreed Lily.

Everybody was still in shock, from the combination of James being head boy and the fact that Lily had just agreed with James, without her voice dripping with both venom and sarcasm.

"So, yeah. That's all we really needed to say, so, those of you who have been prefects before, please give our newbies a couple of tips, and then you can start peacekeeping and corridor patrolling. It's really fun. Trust me," said Lily with a wink.

Their lack of response, and the fact that everyone's jaw was hanging a meter off their faces, made it obvious to Lily how much she had changed over the summer holidays She hadn't been that uptight, had she? But then she remembered the feeling of having to please everybody, as if the weight of the world were on your shoulders.

The prefects were also impressed with James. Not once during the entire meeting had he tried to, a) propose to lily, or b) prank someone in anyway or form. What had happened over the summer? That thought was running through everybody's mind. It looked like they had balanced each other out. But surely that couldn't be the answer, they'd have to have seen each other over the holidays to have been able to balance each other out. And they can't possibly have _seen _each other over the summer. That's just ridiculous! Why Lily hates James' guts! That was just a well known fact.

"OK, if you have any questions, we're here for you," said James, wiping a mock tear of emotion from his eye.

James and Lily sat down on one of the couches casually, and started having a conversation. This did nothing to ease the intense stares of burning curiosity.

"What are we going to do about the stares?" whispered Lily, "How are we going to gently break it to everyone that we're seeing each other?"

"Um... how about bluntly and truthfully? YES I, JAMES POTTER, AM DATING LILY EVANS!" he roared in a fifth grade Hufflepuff's ear.

"James!" she scolded, trying not to laugh as she saw the look of fear, shock amnd comprehension on the fifth grader's face.

"Jeez everyone, just piss off would you!" exclaimed James to the staring audience. A sea of stunned faces stared back at him and slowly everyone trickled out except for Remus. Remus looked up from a book that he was reading and said,

"You'd think people would have taken that article in the Prophet seriously, wouldn't you?"

* * *

The train ride had passed all to quickly. Apart from the occasional random snog fest, courtesy of Mary and Sirius, the occasional quick kisses between Lily and James, and Peter's "ewwwwwwww"'s the train trip was uneventful. Lily had in fact fallen asleep with her head in James' lap after the Rounds. James had been absentmindedly playing with her hair until Sirius started laughing and told him he was being a girl. In response James had merely rolled his eyes and Sirius, realising he would get no fun out of provoking him, excused himself from his 'activities' with Mary and started whispering excitedly to the other Marauders. By the time the train stopped three rolls of parchment had been used. As their voices grew louder and more excited Lily started to stir.

"What are you guys doing?" she asked sitting up and yawning loudly.

"Nothing!" Sirius reply was suspicious. Lily had a feeling that they were planning a prank. Deciding not to warn them against it, she shifted from her position next to James to the seat next to Mary.

"How long have they been planning?" She asked. Mary looked at her watch,

"About 45 minutes." Lily glanced worriedly at the guys.

"Any idea what they're up to?" Lily asked.

"Nope." Mary replied and they both exchanged frightnened looks.

* * *

"OK, everybody off the train," said Lily, walkign down the length of the train and knocking on each of the carriage doors. The train had stopped and she and James were not allowed off until they were sure that every other students had departed. "Hurry up!" she knocked again on one carraige and after a quick mental debate, pushed the door open. A group of Slytherins accompanied the carriage, not making any effort to get up.

"Ohh it's the mudblood." One sneered and the others started laughing. Lily ignored their comments,

"You have 1 minute to get off this train before I start using force." One of the Slytherins pretended to be afraid.

"Ohhh! What you gonna do? Huh? Punk!" In less than a second he was upside down and was turning blue. The other boys, realising that Lily was being serious started to pack away their belongings under Lily's watchful eye.

In 10 minutes, the train was empty and James, Lily, Mary, Sirius, Remus and Peter were riding in the last carraige towards the castle. Upon walking in to the Great Hall they were met with a great hush that had originated from their arrival. It was obviously quite a shock to every single student that Lily, Mary and the Marauders were getting along. Lily glanced towards the staff table and met Dumbledore's gaze. He winked and Lily blinked in response. _Had he known?_ She thought before shaking her head and dismissing it as impossible.

As the six settled into their seats, Professer Mcgonagall led the very nervous first years into the hall. A few 1st years were glancing around for older siblings, others were staring ope mouthed at the ceiling and others were simply staring at the floor and obviously hoping that they could just get this over and done with. 20 minutes later there were 4 new Gryffindor girls, Maddelyn, Sarah, Gretel and Adelaide and 5 new boys Kyle, Sam, Thomas, Jonathon and Trent. Lily had welcomed them all whilst James nad Sirius had said "Boo!" to at least three of them in greeting. After Dumbledore's long speech about sticking together against Voldemort, he had glanced at some of the Slytherins, and his few words about new teachers, he moved onto introducing the new Head Boy and Girl. The students that hadn't heard the news, were all equally shocked and James, who lapped up all the attention and Lily, who had smiled slightly before sitting back down

No one noticed James, Sirius, Remus and Peter extract their wands and inconspicuosly point them at the Slytherin table muttering a word in the process.

Shriaks and screams of horror eripted as the Slythgerins proccessed what was happening. Their empty goblets had started squirting pumpkin juice at them. None of the students in the other houses could control their laughter. A couple of Slytherins who has seen what was coming, had quickly ducked under the table, but most were now drenched in sticky juice.

Lily felt a wave of naseau about to hit her full blast when she saw Severus looking at her with a pained look in his eye. She yearned to reach out to him. To protect him. Was it to late? She didn't know. He had chosen his way and she had chosen hers. She wanted nothing less than to get mixed up with the crowd he had chosen, she knew for a fact that they were all planning to join Voldermort as soon as they left school, but was it so wrong to want to be with Severus? He had been the one to introduce her to the wizarding world, afterall. She knew James would never allow it, but he didn't _own _her.

"SILENCE!" roared Dumbledore. Everybody fell silent.

"James Potter and Sirius Black!" shrieked Professor Klopspock, the herbology teacher.

"Now now Jules, we have no proof it was them. And remember, innocent until proven guilty. Now I suggest that the Slytherins dry themselves off, and we begin the feast. And a warning to whoever caused this mayhem, this is no time for fooling around, not with Lord Voldemort more powerful then he's ever been," said Dumbledore solemly.

After a massive meal of all types of food imaginable, and a few disgusting displays of Sirius' ability to eat mope food than physically possible for the avarage human being, the feast had come to an end. Although James was quite satisfied with the results of tonight's prank, Lily had a bone to pick with James about the seriousness of his actions. She was determined that he should be taking this more seriously. Whilst Peter was absolutely chuffed with himself for, yet again, being included in James and Sirius'plans, Remus was feeling a little guilty. _He _knew that not all Slytherins are evil. And not all evil people are in Slytherin.

"Now, off to bed, all of you,"said Dumbledore. Not unkindly, but sternly enough so that people took him seriously. Lily had almost forgotten about the conversation that she had been planning in her head, but she remembered it as soon as she saw James and Sirius laughing and whispering. She couldn't believe that Dumbledore had let them get off so easily!

Lily followed James up the many corridors and stair cases that belonged to Hogwarts, not helping but remembering the feeling of home she had always felt at Hogwarts. She followed James into the common room and blocked his way just as he was going to bed.

"James!"

* * *

**A/N: Yo yo yo! We will either update in the next week, or in three weeks, so review! Please, for the love of cats, just review! If you don't review a kitten will die!!**


	24. Wow

**A/N: Hey guys! We're sooo sorry that we haven't updated sooner it's just that we've been so busy! Sorry! And we'll try to update again ASAP!**

"What the hell? What _were_ you thinking tonight?!" Lily shouted.

"Shush! There are actually midgets that are trying to go to sleep," James replied, avoiding her question.

"Just answer my question," Lily said, deathly quiet.

James remained silent, sensing it would be best not to try and explain himself.

"You don't understand. People are dying, and you're just mucking around and being immature!"

"Lils-"

"What?"

"I'm sorry okay."

"Fine."

"Am I forgiven?"

"No."

"Lily.... Please!" James wailed.

"No." James, realising he wouldn't be verbally forgiven, snaked an arm around her waist and pressed his lips to hers.

Lily struggled to avoid James, she pulled her head from his soft grasp and started to push him away. James held her. He looked her in the eyes with an expression that captivated Lily. His sweet breath was tickling Lily's face and his gentle arms pulled her tighter towards him. When all anger had melted from Lily's mind, all that seemed to matter was the face in front of her. Lily pulled James toward her and their lips pressed together again. Lily felt weak, nothing else had ever given her this feeling, her arms and legs just gave way and she felt like she had no control.

James stood upright, holding her, he felt her body weaken in his arms but he tightened his grip on her slim waist because nothing mattered but the person in his arms, she was so precious and delicate, James had the feeling that if he loosened his grip on her, she would just melt away and be lost forever. They just merged, their lips pressed together and they seemed to fit, they were two fitting pieces in a neverending pile of loose puzzle pieces depicting an unfinished puzzle of the world around them.

Lily clung to James, as she did, all of her nightmares and fears seemed to slip from her mind, they had a close friendship, but having James so close, having the person she loves embraced in a kiss, felt to Lily like she could really understand him. At the same time as they were kissing, Lily was speaking to him, but now without words, with thoughts. She was telling him her nightmares and pouring the bottle of harsh emotions she had inside her out onto the floor. James was listening, he was telling her everything was alright, that nothing could harm her as long as they were together with their lips tied together in a protective embrace.

Suddenly James flinched and every thought of anger and sadness that had just left Lily's mind, crawled back in. She felt it burning in her mind and then it spread through her, the anger, the hate, the sadness and annoyance. Lily pulled away from James and turned to run. When the waves of James' soft voice echoed in the silence, Lily couldn't help but to turn and look deeply into his eyes.

"Am I forgiven?"

"Yes- No! Okay... maybe."

"I'll take that as a yes."

"I'll forgive you on one condition."

"What?"

"You have to promise to stop pranking people. Especially Sev."

"What!? I can stop pranking others... but Snivelleus? No way? That's like the purpose of my life!"

"This is exactly what I'm talking about. You're _so _immature! People are dying left right and centre. And it's not just us, it's muggles too. By continuing to prank Slytherin, you're just showing that you're not ready for the 'real' world. We all have to unite and stick together! Protect each other! And you know what James? You're not very good at that. I don't particularly care whether you hate Slytherin or not but we all have to fight. And you especially, Sirius, Remus and Peter too, have to practise your defense skills."

"Umm... Why?"

"You haven't figured it out yet?"

"No..."

"You hang out with me. I'm a muggleborn. By hanging out with me, you guys become blood traitors."

"What? I don't think I'm a blood traitor."

'You might not but Voldemort will think you are. He'll try to kill me and then try to kill you. After all _we're_ ruining his plans of a special 'new' world."

"I won't let Voldemort kill you. I swear on my life that I'll protect you."

"Er, thanks. But... that still doesn't mean that you can prank people."

"What? But why? I mean, it's my last year of school, don't I deserve some fun?"

"James, Voldemort isn't the only reason you can't prank people. In case you've forgotten, you're _Head Boy_. It's your responsibility to be a good role model. And that's not going to happen if you keep pranking Slytherins. You're basically telling the younger students to just follow your example and continually prank people. We're the student leaders of this school and we have to make sure everyone concentrates on their academic schooling instead of the mucking around part of school. this year, we're in charge of leading all the students to their full potential. We have to learn to fight! We have to at least try to fight Voldemort!" Lily cried, clearly getting to the point of hysteria.

"Lily, calm down. it's going to be okay." James tried to soothe her.

"How do you know? How can you be sure that were going to win this war? The odds are completely against us!" Lily threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

"Lily, we will win this war. And stressing about it now isn't going to help anyone, and it's," James paused to look at his watch, "11:30, and quite frankly, I'm tired, and I want to go to sleep."

"Fine. Go to sleep. But not thinking about it and trying to ignore everything won't make it go away."

"I know, I know," James replied and after softly kissing Lily goodnight he turned and started walking towards the boys staircase.

"Wait!" Lily cried running towards him, upon reaching him she pulled his head to hers. This time Lily had nothing to lose. The fight had sent her pride packing, her anger was just boiling inside her and her fears of the future were slowly consuming her. She kissed him, she kissed him because she loved him, and because he was such an idiot for pulling those pranks. She kissed him, because the moment was so perfect, because he was the one she wanted to spend all her time with, because he had not cared about his rank within the school and just played those stupid pranks! She kissed him with all the passion, love, hate and admiration she had for him, her lips just craving to feel more of his, everytime he went to pull her close to him, she just pulled him to her tighter. She felt like they were one person, that if she just stayed here, kissing him, she could undo all those idiotic things he had done, invigorate the feelings he had for her and she had for him. James lifted her arms from his back, stepping away. Lily just kept her lips to his, hoping this would never end, that she wouldn't have to go back to the problems she faced in the real world. But James smiled and softly said goodnight before slipping up the staircase. Lily stood at the bottom of the staircase, her lips swollen and her face flushed. lifting a trembling hand, she touched her lips, and relived what had just happened moments before.

"Lily!" Mary shouted softly from up the girls staircase. "Are you coming or what?"

"I'm coming now!" Lily replied, bounding up the staircase. She knew Mary would be waiting anxiously to find out what had just happened. Lily sighed heavily. She wasn't going to get much sleep tongiht, until she told Mary the entire story she new Mary wouldn't allow her to sleep. Taking a deep breath, and preparing herself to face the romantic whirlwind named Mary MacDonald, Lily pushed open the door and stepped into her dormitory.

**A/N: OMX, I'd just like to give a shout to the fantastic writer who helped us out in this chapter, Lowri!!! Give a clap for Lowri! W00t! w00t! Goooooooooooooo Lowri!**

**(Please Review)**


	25. Scream

**A/N: So, we are sooo sorry that we didn't update in like 8 weeks so were trying to post as many chapters as possible from now on. Anyway, Enjoy, Read and Review!**

"Oh. My. Xylophone!" Mary squealed as Lily walked into her dormitory.

"What. The. Hell?" Lily questioned confusedly, she crossed the room and flopped backwards onto her bed and covered her head with a pillow.

"It's the new OMG. Everyone knows that," Mary replied skipping up to Lily and ripping the pillow from her hands.

"Hey!" Lily protested, trying to grab her pillow back.

"Nah-ah. You get your pillow back after you tell me exactly what happened down stairs before," Mary replied.

"I'm not telling!" Lily stubbornly stated. Mary gripped the pillow and smashed it down on Lily's head. "OW!" Lily cried.

"SHUT UP!" Emily shouted from across the room. As Lily turned to watch her bury her face under her pillow Mary smashed her again on the head with the pillow.

"Seriously!" Lily screamed, turning to face Mary and by accidentally using wand less magic Mary was thrown backwards into the wall.

"Ow." Mary said, rubbing her head. "Look what you did!" She said pointing to the pieces of plaster that had started raining down from the roof.

"I'm sorry," Lily replied sarcastically. Mary glanced up at her with puppy dog eyes.

"You hurt my feelings," Mary pouted. "The least you could do to repay me would be telling me what happened downstairs."

"No." Lily replied crossing her arms.

"OH FOR GOODNESS SAKE! JUST TELL HER! And then, both of you- SHUT UP!" Emily shouted again.

"Fine," Lily replied and proceeded to tell Mary a word for word account of what had happened between her and James.

* * *

"Prongsie!" Sirius cried, springing out form behind the door and tackling James to the ground.

"Get off me, you idiot!" James replied, wrestling Sirius on the floor.

"Tell me!" Sirius shouted. Remus and Peter, who had been asleep up until then, both were woken up by the comotion.

"I'm not sure if I should, Padfoot." James replied, sitting on the edge of his bed and running his hands through his hair.

"Of course you should, I'm your best friend. I need to know everything," Sirius replied.

"It was kind of private though..." James trailed off.

"I won't tell anyone. And Remus and Peter won't either." Sirius said gesturing to said Marauders.

"Fine." James replied and he proceeded to tell Sirius, Remus and Peter a word for word account of what happened between him and Lily.

* * *

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Mary squealed as Lily finished recounting everything. "That's sooooo cute!"

"Now can I go to sleep?" Lily asked, removing her pillow from Mary's bed.

"OK. But that was so cute!" Mary cooed.

"SHUT UP!" Emily screamed once again and the dorm fell silent.

* * *

"That was one hell of a story, Prongs." Sirius commented. "If you had to rate her kissing skills on a scale of 1 to 10 what would it be?"

"11." James replied, staring dreamily off into space. "Now can I get some sleep?" He asked.

"Sure, man, sure," Sirius replied and one by one the Marauders fell asleep, until only the slow rhythm of snores disrupted the silence.

* * *

_There was mist everywhere__, and black shapes constantly moving, Lily was getting dizzy. There was nothing for her to hold onto and the ground wasn't visible. The scene changed. There was nothing just a long white chamber that just blended into an everlasting hallway. There was no escape, no where to go. Suddenly a figure emerged, clad in a black robe and although looking handsome was defiantly evil. As the figures eyes met hers she knew at once who it was. Voldemort. She turned to run but was met with an invisible wall. She was help less, as she turned to face Voldemort there was a burst of green light from his wand and then everything was gone and Lily was falling, falling into darkness. _

* * *

"I can't wake her up!" Mary cried, shaking Lily back and forth. "Em, help me!" Mary was become seriously disturbed by Lily's blood curling screams.

"What do I do?" Emily asked, looking completely panicked.

"Get James!"

"He can't come here, this is the girls dormitory!"

"Get Professor McGonagall! Get anyone!"

"Ok." Emily ran out of the dormitory and down the stairs. A few girls were exiting their own dormitories, curious about the screaming. Emily raced past them all. Her only thought being finding Professor McGonagall.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry about how short it was but we kind of hit a brick wall at the moment when it comes to ideas. Hopefully we'll update this week. Please Review!**

* * *


	26. Knights, Damsels and Shattered Windows

**A/N: So, another chapter in what? 4 days? Lucky, Lucky people. So we had so much fun writing this and hopefully you find parts of it funny cause if you don't well... that would be tragic. Anyway enjoy!**

Mary contemplated her options. Shaking Lily as hard as possible was not waking her up and would probably break her neck. This left Mary with one alternative. Grabbing her wand from her bedside table, she lent over Lily and at the same time doused Lily with water and slapped her across the face. Lily shot upwards, slamming her head into Mary's head and groaned.

"What the hell was that for?" Lily asked clutching her forehead. Mary was lying on the floor with her head in her hands.

"You wouldn't wake up!" Mary replied.

"So? It's 4 am in the _morning_!" Lily shot back.

"I am fully aware that it's 4 am." Mary answered.

"Then why the hell were you trying to wake me up?" Lily was completely confused now.

"So that you would stop screaming!" Mary had thought it was obvious but it seemed that Lily was suffering form a case of amnesia.

"I was screaming?" Lily was completely confused, she couldn't really remember her dream.

"Yes! I think you've woken up avery single Gryffindor student!' Mary replied. Lily felt as though she had been hit by a truck. The events of the dream came rushing back to her and she realised that she had been quite hysterical.

"I- I didn't mean to..." Lily apologised.

"Yea well now you know why i had to slap you and douse you with water." Mary shrugged her shoulders.

"What happened to good old 'shaking'?" Lily asked.

"I tried that." At that moment the big window beside Lily's head shattered. "Oh for goodness sake!" Mary cried as James and his broomstick fell into Lily's room.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lily cried, offering James a hand, "Are you insane! Are you tying to kill yourself!"

"No!" James protested. "I couldn't get up the staircase so I figured this was the next best thing."

"The next best thing? Destroying a window? It's called _sliding it open_!" Lily replied, thinking that James could definitely be a bit thick every now and then.

"Sorry! Jeez, next time you're screaming so hysterically that you wake up half the school, I'll just roll over and go back to sleep!" James replied, crossing his arms. At that moment the door flew open and Emily practically divided into the room. Looking up at Lily, a flash of confusion marred her face.

"You're awake?" Emily asked.

"Yes, I do indeed think I am awake." Lily replied. Emily turned towards Mary.

"But you said you couldn't wake her up! I just sprinted faster than I _ever_have before just to get Professor McGonagall. I'm fully ready to die of exhaustion right now!" Professor McGonagall chose that moment to burst into the dormitory, however, instead of glancing at Lily her eyes took in the shattered window and a very guilty looking James Potter.

"Mr Potter! Care to explain yourself!" Professor McGonagall sternly asked.

"It was Lily, Proffessor." James replied, with a look of pure innocence that could only be established after _alot_ of practise.

"What?! I did not break that window, Professor, I assure you. That was all James." Lily was quick to defend herself.

"Oh! You meant the window! I thought you meant why I was here!" James replied.

"So you did shatter that window?" Professor McGonagall was not in the mood for James' games, it was 4 O'clock in the morning for goodness sake!

"Yes. But it was nescasary!" James reasoned

"Care to elaborate?" Asked Professor McGonagall.

"We all heard someone screaming. And being the brilliant, alert, smart, handsome-" James started, gesturing to himself and making actions as though playing charades.

"The point being?" Cut in Professor McGonagall.

"Oh sorry. As I was saying, being the alert Head Boy that I am I heard someone screaming. And well, it sounded like a girl. So after running down to the common room I tried to climb up the stairs but then i remembered that it was completely useless to try, seeing as I can't climb up a slide. One of the girls down there, a 3rd year i think, shouted that it was coming from the first 7th year girls dormitory, I realized that it had to be either Lily, Mary or Emily. As my duty as a male, to be a knight in shining armour to rescue a damsel in distress, I raced back to my room and got onto my noble steed-" James was cut off.

"Mr Potter, the story, not a fairytale." Proffessor McGonagall interrupted, she was tired and wanted to go back to bed as soon as possible.

"Oh, right. Sorry." James replied. Although he was a weensy bit annoyed that he had had to stop his brilliant fairytale story.

"COntinue." Proffessor McGonagall commanded.

"Wait!" Lily cried.

"What?" Emily asked, wanting to hear the rest of James' tale.

"I am not, never have been and never will be a damsel in distress. And I'm pretty sure that applies to Mary and Em as well." Lily said. Staring at James.

"Miss Evans! It does not matter. Mr Potter, continue."

"Yeah, so I got on my broomstick and flew out my window. Then I flew to this window," James gestured towards the empty window frame, "And I um..."

"You what?" Mary asked.

"I- I shattered the window so that I could get inside." James replied, looking at anything but Lily, Mary, Emily and Professor McGonagall.

"Did you not think of sliding it open, Mr Potter?" Proffessor McGonagall asked.

"Well, that thought did cross my mind, but-" James trailed off.

"But what, Mr Potter?" Professor McGonagall was become annoyed at how slow this was becoming.

"It would have taken too much time..." James feebly muttered.

"I have a strong suspicion that you are lying." Professor McGonagall replied.

"No I'm not!" James protested.

"Really?" James cowered under Professor McGonagall's gaze.

"Ok, I was." He admitted.

"You were what?" Lily asked.

"I was lying, OK! Happy now?" James replied.

"You know James, you really shouldn't speak teachers like that." Lily started.

"Like what?" Lily shook her head, James was really clueless sometimes.

"Like, informal. I mean, our Professors _are_ in charge of us. They deserve respect." Lily reasoned.

"I was treating her with respect!" James protested, defending himself.

"See! You called her, her_._That's really not showing respect." Lily replied, not realising he mistake.

"Well you just callled her, _her._" James shot back.

"Well, you're rubbing off on me! It's not my fault. Besides, I normally address Professors as Professors." James started to respond but was cut off by Mary.

"Oh, both of you! Shut up!"

"As I was asking before I was rudely interrupted, Miss Evans," Lily smiled apologetically, "Why didn't you slide open that window?"

"Iwantedtomakeanentrance." James said quickly.

"Pardon?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"I wanted to make an entrance. I thought it would look cool, and plus, I just love the feeling of smashing through a window riding on my noble steed, desperate to save my lovely damsel in distress."

"What did I say about calling me a damsel in distress?" Lily said, clearly starting to get annoyed.

"Yeah, and you actually think of your _broom_ as you _noble steed_? That's kind of weird." Emily commented.

"Well, I also thought that if I smashed open the window I would wake Lily up." James tried to apply logic to his answer.

"I was already awake James." Lily replied.

"You were? What? How?"

"I woke her up. I doused her with water and slapped her across the face." Mary supplied.

"Miss MacDonald!" Professor McGonagall was shocked. Mary was a model student.

"Sorry, but Lily was screaming really loudly! She sounded like she was either in a great deal of pain or deadly terrified." Mary reasoned.

"I see. Well, Mr Potter, I will be writing to your parents. However I feel that you should not recieve a detention as you seemed to be carrying out your duties as Head Boy by helping anyone in need. Although, I do advise you from pulling something like this again. You will be punsihed if that is the case."

"Yea, got it." Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow at his remark but ignored it.

"And I suggest you get back to your dorm. Aim for at least a few hours of sleep at least. Now I will see all of you in your classes later today." Professor McGonagall started to turn away before she stopped. "However, Miss Evans, if you are still feeling _traumatized, _then take a trip to the Hospital Wing and Madame Rhona will give you a potion to calm you down."

"I'll be fine. But, thank-you." Lily replied.

"You're welcome, Miss Evans. Now all of you, get some sleep. And Mr Potter don't even think about using the slide. And please don't shatter your own window."

"Sure thing." James cheekily saluted, hopped on his broom and flew out of the window. Then with a wave of her wand, Professor McGonagall repaired the window and walked out of the room, shutting the door firmly behind her.

"Are you going to sleep?" Mary asked Lily.

"No, I think I'll stay awake. You go to sleep though. I'll talk to you in the morning." Lily replied, grabbing a book and settling onto her bed she began to read.

"Yeah. Cya." Mary said, climbing into bed.

* * *

When Lily was satisfied that The others were asleep she closed her eyes and lent her head against the wall. She was so tired, but the fear of what lay in wake if Lily started to dream scared Lily so much that she couldn't go to sleep. Stifling a sob, Lily reached over to grab a tissue from her bedside table. Instead of a tissue however she picked up something else. A lily with a note attached. Puzzled Lily opened the note.

_Lily,_

_Amor Vincit Omnia. Love Conquers All.  
Don't worry. The good always beat the bad. And with someone as brilliant as me by your side, you don't need to be afraid._

_Forever Yours,_

_James._

Lily smiled and wiped a stray tear from her face. She had become _really_ emotional lately. Maybe James had cracked the shell that surrounded her. Placing the note back on the table Lily tossed her book on the ground and burrowed herself under her covers, she knew she wouldn't be having any more nightmares tonight.

* * *

James lay in his bed staring at the ceiling. He hoped Lily had read the note. James wasn't sure what it was but being with Lily had made him a better person. Although he still pranked people, it _was_ the purpose of his life after all, he wasn't doing it so much anymore. Lily had changed him. Changed him for the better, and James was glad for that. Turning onto his side, James drifted off to sleep.

**A/N: The phrase, Amor Vincit Omnia is Latin, just in case anyone wanted to know. Please Review! We love feedback, it makes us happy and helps us to continue!**


	27. Notes, Hogsmead and Unsuitable Behaviour

**Enjoy! (By the way, we aren't J. K. Rowling ........)**

Lily was sitting in Transfiguration, successfully turning her rabbit into a desk. James however wasn't having as good luck. He was sitting next to Lily and intensly concentrating on trying to turn his raccoon into a chair. Unfortunately it still had ears.

"The trick is to concentrate with all your mind. Mr Potter, I find it hard to believe that you have found a way to concentrate whilst simultaneously staring at Miss Evans as though you've never seen a girl before." Lily's cheeks burnt red with embarrassment, but James was unfazed.

"Oh no, not at all miss. I wasn't," said James confidentally.

"James you were." Mary stated.

"No, I wasn't"

"James it was kind of plain to see that you were staring at Lily!" Mary replied.

"Oh yea, I was staring at Lily. I just wasn't concentrating."

Professor McGonagall after watching the exchange, sighed and turned her attention to another Ravenclaw student who was having trouble ridding his desk of fur.

"_Pssst," _James whispered, "_Lily!"_

"What do you want?" she hissed back. Lily was trying to concentrate on turning another rabbit into a chair.

"Here!" He passed her a note with a lily attached to it.

"James, you should be concentrating on your chair. But thanks." James winked and turned back to his chair. Lily, removed the lily and transferred it to her bag and then opened the note.

_Lily,_

_Sine amore, nihil est vita.  
Without love, life is pointless.  
Without you, i'm lost._

_James._

* * *

"James! James!" Lily cried, running down the hallway to where James was standing talking to Remus.

"Hey," James replied "What's up?"

"Nothing much." Lily answered, "Actually, this." Lily stood up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to James'. Wrapping her arms around his neck she kissed him softly and then more passionately. Pouring all the emotions from the previous night into the kiss, she deepened the kiss. James had looped his arm around Lily's waist and his other hand was cupping her cheek. He, likewise was filling the kiss with all the stress he was feeling form having to make sure that she was always alright to trying to handle all the homework he was getting.

Remus, who had been standing next to James, said, "Um... hello? I think i'll just leave. Yeah. See you later James, Lily." Gathering his books from the ground, Remus glanced one last time at the embracing couple before shaking his head and walking away down the hallway towards Gryffindor Tower.

Meanwhile, Lily had unconciously grabbed James' tie and pushed him against the wall. As they started to get more into the kiss a soft cough interrupted them. At the exact same time, both jumped away from each other. Lily crashing into a passer by and James slamming his head into the wall.

"Oww!" James yelped, rubbing his scalp. Lily, meanwhile, was detangling herself and apologising profusely to the student she had hit.

The owner of the soft cough, winked at them both. "Prehaps you shouldn't do that in public. you must remember to set an example." Dumbledore said, wiping his half moon glasses and walking away. James turned to Lily,

"Hey! We didn't get in trouble! We should do this more often!"

"Maybe not in public." Lily replied, straightening her robes.

"I'm guessing you didn't come see me just to kiss me?" James asked.

"Oh! Yeah! I wanted to ask whether you wanted to go with me to Hogsmead next weekend?" Lily asked hopefully, as she had had an exhausting day and was looking forward to the relaxtion time. As Lily had said this, James eyes had widened in forgetfullness.

"Erm, Lily, I would absolutely love to, but I'm busy," James replied, looking at his feet.

"Ok, right. What _are_ you doing?" Lily asked skeptically, as she doubted very much that it was studying.

"Um, I, er, I, um, I have some buisness to discuss with Remus. You know, secret men's buisness" James tapped his nose.

Lily gave James a strange look, then gathered her books and started to walk back to Gryffindor Tower, with James running to catch up.

* * *

Lily walked down the hallway after lunch towards Potions, chatting animatedly with Mary. Suddenly, she froze.

"Hey, Mudblood, I see you don't have your blood traitor boyfriend here to protect you," Amycus Carrow said, stepping out from behind a suit of armour.

"Yeah, you scum; your boyfriend won't be able to help you at all once we've had our fun." Allecto Carrow commented, revealing herself as well from the other side of the hallway. Lily continued to ignore them and started walking again with Mary following behind her.

"Look at me when I talk to you!" Amycus shouted, reaching out to grab her arm. Lily, after carelessly throwing her books to the ground, had in less than a second had grabbed his arm and twisted it around his back, bending it into an un-natural position. "Owwww!" Amycus wailed. Lily tightened her grip and hissed, "Feel like apologising?"

"No." Amycus replied weakly. Lily released Amycus and pushed him away, then she stepped forward and connected her fist solidly with his face, feeling a grim sense of satisfaction as she felt his bone snap under the strain of his blow.

"LILY! What the hell?!" Mary shouted, trying to get to Lily through the throngs off people that had gathered after Sir Cadogen had run through the halls shouting about the death threats. Blood trickled down Amycus' face and his eyes hardened. He stumbled forward and tried to grab her neck. Shimmying out of the way, Lily executed a perfect butterfly kick, with both legs hitting him in the shoulder and head, Amycus crumpled to the ground and Lily spun around.

Descending on her with a murderous glare was Allecto. Allecto clumsily swung her fist but Lily ducked out of the way and Allecto stumbled off balance. Standing upright, Lily quickly and efficiently slapped Allecto across the face and watched with a grim sense of satisfaction as Allecto's head snapped with a sickening crunch to the side.

"Why you little-!" Allecto was cut off as Lily bounded forward and grabbed hold off her hair.

"Still want to finish that sentence, Carrow?" Lily asked, gripping Allecto's hair tighter, her silent answer prompted Lily to continue. "Didn't think so. Now, Don't even _think _about doing that again. Your skills are useless and quite frankly, you're pathetic. I don't know what you were hoping to achieve doing this but you failed. And next time you have the idea of trying to kill me, I would advise banishing that thought from your mind in order to miss out on the opportunity of being completely embarrassed." Removing her hold on Allecto's hair, Lily reached out and pushed Allecto backwards. Allecto stumbled backwards into a suit of armour, collapsed and hit the floor, emitting a low moan.

Applause erupted around Lily, and as she turned to face the onlookers. Her face showed genuine surprise when she realised her 'display' had been watched.

"Excuse me!" Professor McGonagall's voice echoed loudly through the hall. Worry lines suddenly creased Lily's forehead as she realised that she was going to get into a lot of trouble. "Miss Evans! You are in very big trouble, young lady! My office! NOW!" Lily was completely shocked. She hadn't even realised what she'd done until _after_she'd done it. And now she was going to be punished, possibly have her title as head girl taken away from her! Determined not to show any weakness, Lily walked with her head high after Professor McGonagall and towards her inevitable doom.

**A/N: Yo wassup dawgs?! Hope you like this chapter, P.S yet another Latin phrase. And I tried to write a kiss scene but i don't think i was as good as Lowri!**

**Review Please! XXX Betty & Lyra.**


	28. Punishments and Problems

**Disclaimer: We are not JKRowling.**

**A/N: Ok so we are soooooo incredibly sorry for not updating, its just we had tests at the end of the year and then we both kept going on different holidays and missing each other by a couple of days. So we know exactly what's happening after this bit (We've been waiting to write it since we started the story) and we will try and post the next chapter ASAP. **

**Also were including a bit off the last chapter so that you don't have to go back a chapter t remember what's been happening.**

**(Last Chapter) **

_"Still want to finish that sentence, Carrow?" Lily asked, gripping Allecto's hair tighter, her silent answer prompted Lily to continue. "Didn't think so. Now, Don't even think about doing that again. Your skills are useless and quite frankly, you're pathetic. I don't know what you were hoping to achieve doing this but you failed. And next time you have the idea of trying to kill me, I would advise banishing that thought from your mind in order to miss out on the opportunity of being completely embarrassed." Removing her hold on Allecto's hair, Lily reached out and pushed Allecto backwards. Allecto stumbled backwards into a suit of armour, collapsed and hit the floor, emitting a low moan._

_Applause erupted around Lily, and as she turned to face the onlookers. Her face showed genuine surprise when she realised her 'display' had been watched._

_"Excuse me!" Professor McGonagall's voice echoed loudly through the hall. Worry lines suddenly creased Lily's forehead as she realised that she was going to get into a lot of trouble. "Miss Evans! You are in very big trouble, young lady! My office! NOW!" Lily was completely shocked. She hadn't even realised what she'd done until aftershe'd done it. And now she was going to be punished, possibly have her title as head girl taken away from her! Determined not to show any weakness, Lily walked with her head high after Professor McGonagall and towards her inevitable doom._

* * *

"Miss Evans! I am very disappointed in you. That was unacceptable behaviour, especially for a Head Girl! What have you got to say for yourself?"

"Er, sorry?"

"You do realize you're going to be punished for this don't you?"

"Um, yes?"

"Miss Evans, look me in the eye when I'm speaking to you! Now, I'm going to let you off easy this time, but only because you've never done anything of a similar nature before. You're going to have detention for a week. Every night, you will be expected to clean out various parts of the school. Also, on the weekend, you'll be banned from the trip to Hogsmead. Am I understood?"

"Yes, professor."

"Very well, now off to bed with you."

* * *

"What are they going to make you do?" asked James with concern.

"I have to clean out 'various parts of the school' and I miss out on the Hogsmead trip. But that's okay, because I wasn't going to go without you," she said, looking unnecessarily sad, hoping to make James feel bad and tell her what he was going to be doing.

James shifted uncomfortably then said, "Well, it doesn't matter what punishment you get, what you did was absolutely awesome!"

"That was not the response I was thinking of." Lily replied, laughing.

"Come on," James said, looping an arm over her shoulder and steering her towards their dormitory.

* * *

An uneventful month passed and Lily thought her year would become normal again, but what she didn't know was that it was about to get a whole lot more complicated.

"James!" Lily cried running down the hall to try to reach him. Not looking where she was going she accidentally crashed into someone and they both went flying. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so- Severus?" He looked up and met her eyes. "Hi." She said timidly.

"Hi." He whispered back.

"I'm sorry." She said again, this time apologizing for more than just the crash. Serevus smiled a sad smile that didn't reach his eyes.

Severus' head was a whirlwind of emotion. Hatred, anger and mostly love and confusion. He was so confused, he didn't know whether to let her be happy or fight for her back.

Lily's thoughts were of a similar notion. She didn't know whether to accept that she could never have James and Severus and she would sometimes wonder if she'd made the right decision picking James. Of course she loved James and could never leave him, but sadness overwhelmed her every time she thought of her Sev. James and Severus seemed to be natural enemies, she being the only thing they shared in common.

Severus whispered quietly enough that only Lily heard, "You can always come back, please come back Lily?" He said it as a question, not a demand. Lily was lost in her train of thought but was jolted back to reality by James' voice.

"Lily! What are you doing talking to that freak?"

"Don't call him that James!" Lily said dangerously. James had stalked up to Severus.

"What are you doing talking to my girlfriend?" James taunted.

"You don't deserve her." Severus replied, his voice laced with hatred.

"What and you do?" James snorted.

"Sev, it's over, whatever was between us, it's time to move on." Lily said quietly butting in.

"I can't Lily, I can't. I've tried so hard but I just can't." At that moment Lily felt an agonizing pain, right about where her heart would be.

"Yes you can." James said threateningly, moving closer towards him.

"James, don't do this, just walk away, I'll be with you in a second." Lily said placing a hand on James' shoulder. Severus visibly flinched as he saw it.

"I'm not leaving you with Snivelleus." Lily removed her hand, her eyes alight with compressed fury and pain.

"James! It's called trust, ok! Nothings going to happen, alright! Can you please treat me with some respect?" Lily shouted.

"I'm not leaving." James said fiercely.

"Fine!" Lily cried, sprinting away down the hall. James threw one last menacing glance at Severus and then ran after her.

* * *

Lily ran into the common room, slamming the door shut behind her. It open again almost straight away and James ran in and shouted,

"Lily!" Lily spun round.

"What?" She shouted, her eyes brimming with held back tears.

"Why are you mad? I just saved you from him!" Lily stalked forwards.

"You don't understand, Sev was my friend!"

"He's not a friend, he's scum!" James said, in reply.

"You idiot! He's not scum, he's a person! He has feelings James!"

"He's not a person, he wants to join Voldemort!"

"He's been an outlaw all his life, people mock him and are mean to him and if the only place he feels he can live is with Voldemort then, so be it!" Lily cried a tear streaking down her cheek.

"He's going to be evil, kill people!"

"And whose fault will that be?" Lily asked, her voice dropping.

"His own, with his sick twisted mind-"

"Shut up! That is not true and you know it! It's yours and Sirius' and Remus' and Peter's fault! You idiots. I hate you Potter!" Lily said the last part with her voice laced with venom, as she finished, she turned on her heel and ran up the stairs with Mary following soon after.

* * *

**A/N: We promise to update soon, we are also sorry for the wait and please R&R!**


	29. A werewolf in Hogwarts?

**A/N: Unfortunately we have some VERY bad news. This story is only going to be continued by one of us, seeing as the other can't fit it into her massively hectic schedule. However, I, who can continue writing, still have to worry about tests and homework and I find almost NO time to get any writing in. I'm trying to do it because i hate letting all of you readers down, but the things is, its likely that I'll will only be able to update every holidays and I'm really sorry about that. **

**I can't thank all of you enough, for reviewing and adding this story to alert. I had the hard descision of deciding whether to abandon this story or continue it, (I've chosen to continue it) but i hope that you can all be patient and not hate me too much for not updating much. Again, i'm really sorry, but i hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Professor McGonagall hurried down the hallway, stopping in front of a gargoyle, she hastily muttered, "Barley sugar," before rushing up the stairs and entering Professor Dumbledore's office.

"Albus!" She cried dropping into one of the free arm chairs.

"What can I do for you Minerva?" He asked, turning around to face her with his signature twinkle in the eyes.

"It's James Potter and Lily Evans!"

"And what about them?" Dumbledore asked knowingly.

"According to rumours, they refuse to speak or even see each other! How can we have a Head Boy and Girl that refuse to see each other?" McGonagall had stood up and was now pacing the floor, and gradually wearing away the carpet.

"Don't worry, it will all work out soon enough, Minerva." Dumbledore replied.

"But how can you know, Albus? How can you be sure that Gryffindor House won't split in two? That the school will split in two? How do you know, Albus?!" McGonagall had stopped pacing, and stood with her hands on her hips, panicking and almost shouting.

"Tell me, Minerva, what do you see when you look at those two? Anger, Friendship or… Love? I'm certain they will make it tough this, it's only a matter of time. Those two will do good things in the future." McGonagall slowly sunk back into her chair.

"I guess you're right, well I _hope_you're right. I won't lie; those two are two of my best students… This just, needs to be resolved, my classes are far too quiet now." Albus chuckled and the two started talking about other unimportant things.

* * *

Lily opened her eyes. Rolling over and looking outside to try to determine the time, she paused for a second, to marvel at the beauty of the full moon, just hanging gracefully in the sky. She wasn't sure what had woke her up, seeing as it was just after midnight, but figured it had to be some loud sound or something. She was about to forget about it and move away from the window when something caught her eye. Three small figures were running around on the grass near the lake. Lily couldn't seem to see whether they were students or not, so she figured she might as well investigate.

Changing out of her pyjamas and into some normal, warm, dark clothes, she slipped on her sneakers, crossed the room and slipped out the door.

Opening the front doors of the school she was assaulted by the cool breeze from outside, slipping outside she kept to the walls seeing as it was still very dark and made her way to the lake.

Lily had been walking for 5 minutes and had spotted nothing out of the usual when she heard something behind her, spinning around slowly she came face to face with… a poised and ready to strike… _werewolf_?

* * *

Lily wasn't one of those girls that seemed to scream a lot when she was frightened, she would scream when she was angry, but she preferred to not attract attention to herself when she was frightened. The wolf started moving forward, and with every step the werewolf took, she took one backwards.

And then, the worst thing possible happened. She hit the wall. Lily could no longer step backwards and the werewolf just kept coming.

* * *

Sometimes in life, you can do impossible things, times when you're angry or scared or just feeling a very strong emotion. Adrenaline was the thing that made you do impossible things. And at that moment, Lily did something she new she never would have normally been able to do. She jumped.

Not a small jump, but a jump that had her just managing to grab a lantern holder and swing her legs up just as the werewolf jumped. It hit the wall and the entire castle seemed to tremble. The werewolf looked up at her, its eyes glinting, and Lily thanked whatever Architect had designed the castle for having such big lanterns. She swung until she was standing on the thin metal holder and as the werewolf got ready to strike again, she jumped once more, reaching the lantern holder a metre above her. Swinging onto it just as the werewolf snapped his jaws were her legs had been.

Lily sat panting on top of the wall. "A _werewolf? _In _Hogwarts?!" _She needed some time to calm down, and for now, she wasn't going anywhere. Where could it have come from? Surely Dumbledore would have put _some_sort of protection near the school. Then again, there had always been rumours about werewolves in the forbidden forest; she'd just never thought about it that much. Lily was pondering exactly how to get down from the wall when the werewolf struck again. Deciding that she was now in absolute serious danger, she opened her mouth and screamed.

* * *

Out by the lake, a stag was lapping up the water. Upon hearing the scream it paused and cocked its head to the side. A few seconds later the stag tensed and it abandoned its task and raced towards the castle.

* * *

The werewolf didn't seem to be stopping its attack any time soon and just as Lily began to lose hope, out of nowhere came two animals, a dog and a stag. Both hit the werewolf and began biting, scratching and kicking it, before dragging it away from Lily. In less than a minute the trio had disappeared, with a small rat like creature running after them.

The silence that then descended chilled Lily. As she looked down she realised something terrible. There was no way for her to get back down again. Whilst adrenaline had helped her up the wall, she was practically running on empty now. Leaning forward again to see the drop something even worse happened, the lantern broke off the wall. Before Lily had time to fully comprehend what had happened, she was falling towards the ground with nothing to stop her. As her body impacted, all Lily saw and felt was a wave of darkness washing over her.

* * *


	30. Unconciousness and Remus' Secret

**A/N: Read, Review, Rave, Relax. ENJOY!**

* * *

Susan Harwicke made her way to Care of Magical Creatures, chatting animatedly with her best friend of 2 years, Holly Keton. She had just turned the corner when Holly stopped abruptly, gasping in shock. Susan turned around,

"Come on Holly, we're going to be late!" As Holly still didn't move, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Holly, what's wrong?" Holly lifted a hand and pointed in the direction of the castle wall.

"Is that a person?" She asked shakily. Susan followed her gaze and gasped sharply.

"Merlin! Holly come on!" And the two friends took off in a run towards the person. Reaching them quickly, and panting slightly, Susan proceeded to flip the person over, to check for a pulse, like she had seen people doing when she watched muggle TV once.

"It's the Head Girl!" Holly whispered, and indead it was. Deathly white and cold, and covered in bruises, Lily Evans lay stiff on the ground. "It's LILY EVANS! The Head Girl is DEAD!" Holly screamed. Spinning on her heel, she ran towards the castle, as Susan stayed behind cradling Lily's head in her lap.

* * *

James distractedly chewed the croissant in his hand. He looked up hopefully as the doors to the Great Hall opened before dropping his gaze down disappointed.

"Hey." Mary said, sitting down in front of him. "Who stuck the stick in there?"

"What?" James asked.

"The stick, up your arse, the one that's making you all gloomy..." She trailed off and reached forwards, placing to fingers at the corners of his mouth and trying to push a smile onto his face. Sirius and Peter who had also silently being eating started laughing. "And hello sexy..." Mary added winking at Sirius before nodding hello to Peter.

"Shut up," James replied. "Have you seen Lily though?" Mary frowned.

"Her bed's not made, but some of her clothes are gone. Why, do you know where she is?" Mary asked.

"No..." James trailed off and Sirius cut in.

"I doubt she'd talk to you anyway, after what happened yesterday, you know, that brilliant fight you had in front of everyone."

"Shut up," James said again, "But Mary, do you know where she is-" James was cut of as a third year ran screaming into the Great Hall.

"Help! HELP!" She cried, James jumped up and the girl ran into his stomach knocking them both backwards, yet she continued to scream.

"Hey, calm down!" James said, helping the girl up, she stopped screaming but silent tears were streaming down her cheeks. "What's wrong? What happened?" She took a deep breath before answering.

"Outside, Suzie, Me, Girl, Dead, Stiff Cold, Magical Creatures, Wall, Dead, Cold, Breathing, Not, Me, Screaming-" James cut her off again.

"Ok, calm down, who's hurt?" She lowered her voice to a whisper.

"It's the Head Girl, Lily Evans, she's dead!" James stumbled back in shock, his face pale and his breathing laboured.

"What?" He'd barely finished before he broke off in a run, with only one thought going through his head, find Lily.

* * *

"No!" James cried, leaping down the stairs and running towards where he could see a limp figure being help by a third year. "Lily? Lily! LILY!" He screamed, sprinting faster than he'd ever sprinted before in his life. Skidding to a stop he collapsed onto his knees beside her. One look at her pale face, and closed eyes, and he knew what to do. Scooping her into his arms, he took off jogging back towards the castle, the only thought whirling round his brain being: Lily.

The walk to the hospital wing took less than a minute, yet to James it felt like a lifetime.

* * *

"Will she be okay?"James half screamed at the new nurse: Madame Pomfrey.

"Yes, yes, she will be fine." she replied curtly, "Although I have no idea why on_ earth_she would have been lying on the middle of the gras with concussion - "

"I think she fell off the wall," James interrupted.

"I see," she replied, "And do you have any idea why she would have been on the wall in the middle of the night?"

"Um, no..." he looked away quickly.

Meanwhile, Remus was sobbing quietly in the corner of his dormitory. The guilt had been eating away at him ever since he'd realised what must of happened. Right at that moment, he didn't think anybody could have hated themselves more than he did. He wished he could just die. He knew that nothing except dying would ever stop him from being the monster he was, and always would be.

"Man, you can't beat yourself up like this! It wasn't your fault! She was the one who fell off the wall! If anything it was ours! We should have stopped you-" Sirius began.

"STOP IT!" Remus roared, "STOP TRYING TO MAKE THIS BETTER FOR ME! I DESERVE _EVERYTHING!"_

Peter stared at Remus timidly whilst Sirius shook his head silently.

After a long silence, Peter interjected, "Well, we could go and see her..."

* * *

The four marauders, plus Mary, were all crowded around Lily's silent bed. Tears streamed down Remus' face and although Mary was touched by the uncharacteristic emotion that Remus was showing, she was also surprised, and curious as to why he was looking so down now, even after they had been informed that Lily would be perfectly fine. However, she kept her thoughts to herself and didn't comment.

After about thirty minutes everybody but Remus and James left, and after another fifteen minutes of silence alone with Remus and Lily, James decided to go to dinner. Remus spent what seemed like forever staring at Lily, which, in other circumstances, would have been slightly creepy.

Eventually, she stirred, and Remus jumped.

"Remus? Is that you?" she whispered.

"Yes," he whispered back.

"Where's James?" she mumbled, before regaining full consciousness. "Why are you crying?"

"It's nothing... actually its everything, but don't worry."

"You can trust me with anything Remus..." Suddenly, the infirmary disappeared. She was being transported back into her memories, into what had happened the night before. The creatures, sneaking out, the Werewolf, jumping, attacking, her screaming, and then the stag and the dog, and after that, nothing. She gasped sharply as she was jolted back into reality. He'd been watching her face and seemed to answer a silent question.

"I know, I know what happened yesterday," he said slowly and quietly. Her expression was hard to believe, not pity, but Sympathy. "The werewolf," he spat through his teeth, "I know all about the werewolf."

"Oh, Remus!" Lily cried, throwing her arms around him in a friendly hug. The signs had been there all along, she was just too blind to see them. "This is the secret?" Remus half nodded. He turned his head away as another tear dripped down his cheek. "I don't blame you, you know. You'll always be one of my best guy friends. I'd never be able to think of you as anything other than my sweet and caring friend Remus." Remus smiled slightly, this confession had helped to soothe the aching weight of guilt that had been weighing him down and eating away at him. HE raised his arms around Lily and hugged her back, whispering

"Thanks."

* * *

Unknown to both of them a lone figure was watching them interact from a crack between the infirmary doors. He nodded his head slightly and turned away, walking away from the infirmary without his well known swaggering step.

* * *

**A/N: Hi all, well another chapter in less than a week! Please Review! You guys really don't know how much I love reviews, they're like food for the soul! Anyway, the more reviews I get the more likely I am to update because if i don't get any reviews I think the story isn't interesting anyone anymore! Sorry about that ramble.... Anyway, if you didn't get the last bit, PM me and I'll explain it. And I'll most likely explain it in the next chapter as well, but that won't be up for a while... SORRY! Anyway, i hope you enjoyed the chaper... CYA!**


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